LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap.' Copyright No. 



Shelf M_^_S 4* 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



The Salt-Box House 



" The Ornament of the House is Neatness, 
The Luck of the House is Contentment, 
The Honor of the House is Hospitality, 
The Blessing of the House is Piety." 

"Love is the true hey of history" 






The Salt-Box House 

Eighteenth Century Life in a New 
England Hill Town 

4 

By Jane de Forest Shelton 




New York : The Baker and Taylor Co. 
Five and Seven East Sixteenth Street 



29131 






o 



v\<\ 



S^ 



Two Ivfif* Received 
AUG 3 1900 

Copyright entry 
SECOND COPY. 

Delivered <t« 

ORD£ft:DIVfStOK, 
AUG 7 1900 



1 



Copyright, 1900, 

BY 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. 



ROBERT DRUMMOND, PRINTER, NEW YORK. 



PREFACE 

Fire, with its relentless touch; the paper-mill 
during the Civil War with its eager grasp and 
large recompense; and the hand that knows no 
reverence for " Yesterday " have combined to 
cast into the pit of Oblivion much that would 
now be deemed priceless. But the faithful 
seeker along the shores of the Past will find that 
there yet remain sheltered beaches where some 
of the treasures left by the flood of Time have 
escaped the wear of waves, a careless foot, and 
crumpling fingers. 

This record of life in the eighteenth century 
has been compiled from a careful searching of 
private papers, and by mention of the long-ago, 
a stirring of old memories, parting the mists of 
the present and welcoming the wafts of recollec- 
tion, till the vision dear to the old hearts grew 
clear, and tradition and knowledge were se- 
cured. 

9 



PREFACE 

It is believed that in the following pages there 
is not recorded a custom or a costume, an article 
of use or adornment, a habit of life or of man- 
ner, for which there is not authority for the 
period and locality designated. 

Life in the various New England colonies had 
many common characteristics, but it had also 
differences dependent upon the situation of 
towns, their accessibility or isolation, the class 
of persons founding them, and the possible 
means of subsistence. The purpose of this record 
is to show the life on one group of hills in west- 
ern Connecticut, which, although typical, had 
nevertheless some special features. 

All life in the primitive days of our country 
had its hardships, its trials, and privations, but it 
had also its amenities, and although To-day 
would not willingly change places with Yester- 
day, it is quite possible that Yesterday would 
not change with To-day. 

J. de F. S. 

Greystone, Derby, Conn., August, 1900. 

10 



fn fjonor of tbe Xong*Sgo; 

AND TO THOSE, WHO, PASSING AN OLD HIGHWAY, 

SEE THE SIGNS WRITTEN ON MOSS-COVERED FENCES, 

IN TRACES OF OLD DOOR-YARDS, 

BY LONE STANDING CHIMNEYS, 

AND WOULD KNOW THE INTERPRETATION THEREOF; 

TO THOSE WHOSE PULSES ARE STIRRED 

AS THEY STAND BENEATH THE LONG SLOPING ROOFS, 

AND WHOSE HEARTS BOW REVERENTLY 

AS THEY READ THE RECORDS 

ON THE GRAVE STONES OF THE SEVENTEEN HUNDREDS, 

Sbte book is inscribed. 



CONTENTS 

i 

The Touch of Time 15 



Black and White 



VIII 
When the Heir came of Age 



PAGH 



II 

New England Pioneers 20 

III 
The Edge of the Wilderness 25 

IV 

Queen Esther's Household 29 

V 



37 



VI 

Church and Meeting 41 

VII 
The Sunday Outing 47 



53 



IX 
The Building of the House 61 

X 

The Household Plenishing 68 

11 



CONTENTS 



XI 






PAGE 


Supplying the Family Needs 


7& 


XII 




The Daily Life 


83 


XIII 




A Journey to New Haven 


95 


XIV 




The Mother's Duties 


in 


XV 




Making New Friends 


117 


XVI 




Fire and Light 


124 


XVII 




Fishing and Camping 


134 


XVIII 




Fashions 


145 


XIX 




The Tory Non-Combatants 


150 


XX 




The French Army 


162 


XXI 




The Uncertain Years 


168 


XXII 




St. Pumpkin's Day and Christmas 


176 


XXIII 




The Daughter's Education 


183 


12 





CONTENTS 
XXIV 

FAGS 

Young Ladyhood 191 

XXV 

Books and Newspapers 200 

XXVI 
Youth and Age 213 

XXVII 
The Hour of Sorrow 231 

XXVIII 
The Third Generation 238 

XXIX 

Girlhood and Romance 244 

XXX 



The Aged Friend 

XXXI 

The Changing Years 



251 



254 



XXXII 

At Home and Abroad 262 

XXXIII 
Not a " Grim Old Maid " 276 

XXXIV 

The Reminiscent Years 286 

XXXV 

The Death of the House 292 

Appendix 297 

13 



" History is a landscape, and, like those of nature, it is 
continually changing. Two persons who look at it at the 
same time do not find in it the same charm, and you your- 
self, if you had it continually before your eyes, would 
never see it twice alike. The general lines are permanent, 
but it needs only a jet of light to bring out ruch or such 
a detail and give it a false value. 

" When I began this page the sun was disappearing 
behind the ruins of the Castle of Crussol, and the splen- 
dors of the sunset gave it a shining aureola; the light 
flooded everything and you no longer saw everywhere the 
damage which wars have inflicted upon the old feudal 
manor. I looked, almost thinking I could perceive at the 
window the figure of the chatelaine. . . . Twilight 
has come, and now there is nothing there but crumbling 
walls, a discrowned tower, nothing but ruins and rubbish 
which seem to beg for pity." — Introduction to the Life of 
S. Francis of Assisi by Paul Sabatier. 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 



THE TOUCH OF TIME 

The old house looks as if it had stood in the 
path of a tornado. But it has only yielded to the 
pressure of the hand of Time weighted with the 
vagaries of New England's climate. Even the 
pyramids of Egypt could not long have held 
their majesty if they had been set on Connecti- 
cut's hills with her extremes of heat and cold to 
try their temper; and the old house, though firm 
in its foundation and staunch in its up-rearing, 
after bearing itself bravely for one hundred and 
thirty years, fell, as an old man falls by the way- 
side — when the knees give way and the head 
drops forward — all of a heap! 

The house seemed to lose heart when Miss 

Mary died. She was the last of her line, and her 

15 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

next of kin, being well placed elsewhere, cared 
not for removal. After a brief period of desolation 
the alien came to work the land on shares. But, 
as the strange burr dropped from his tongue, 
and he set up his cheap modern furniture, the 
old walls stood aloof and the ceilings withheld 
their benediction. At the end of the season he 
complained that the stairs were awry, the cup- 
board shelves aslant, and the " childer " tripped 
on the wavy floors; so when all these incongrui- 
ties, animate and inanimate, were safely out- 
side the great door, the latch gave a happy 
click as it fell into place, leaving the house alone 
with its secrets and its mysteries. And again 
the winds brought their joys and sorrows to 
the sympathetic chimney, while the sunbeams 
came through the unshaded windows to dance 
their old stately measure on the familiar floors. 
The old home-makers needed no modern dec- 
orator to tell them that the chimney was the 
heart of the house. Well they knew that 
through its arteries the life-blood must flow, that 
it meant warmth, and food, and comfort, all that 
centres in a home. And for long this great 
chimney held itself like a 1 stout heart against all 

16 



THE TOUCH OF TIME 

odds. But when the frosts of winter and the 
suns of summer swelled, and then shrivelled, the 
mortar lying between the stones at the top till 
it crumbled out, scattering down to the eaves, 
and now and again a top-stone fell off, there was 
no one to know it. And the cellar gathered 
more than its share of dampness that worked in 
between the great stones at the chimney's base. 
Then one night a fierce, unfriendly wind danced 
around the old walls, mockingly taking hold of 
the ridge-pole as if shaking it by the shoulders, 
and, with a shiver, the great heart failed. Over 
onto the sloping roof the chimney fell, crashing 
through and carrying down with it shingles, 
rafters and flooring, down, down, to the cellar 
itself, filling the great chasm with wreakage 
half-way to the ceiling of the first floor, and 
tumbling out far beyond the back-door stone, 
out to the rose-bushes themselves. Stones 
enough to build a church! 

It had been a great house in its day. Built 
after the fashion that ruled largely in Connecti- 
cut for half of the last century, it was more 
convenient and commodious than graceful or 

picturesque. Colloquially, it was called a " salt- 

17 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

box house," its lines repeating those of the 
wooden salt-box that hung in the kitchen chim- 
ney. The ridge-pole was set far to the front, 
from which a short roof pitched to the top of 
the second story, but the back roof sloped long 
and curveless down to the outer line of the ceil- 
ing of the ground floor, reaching out a wing 
beyond that to cover the L that cuddled close to 
the main house. 

The chimney too, the house's great centre, 
was set well forward. Following the prevailing 
custom, irrespective of the highway, the house 
faced the south. The wide front door, with long 
iron hinges stretching across it, opened into a 
small hall or " entry," from which, by a few 
steps, and a landing at top and bottom, the stair- 
case, with its quaintly turned balusters, wound \ 
against the back of the chimney, leading to 
another short hall above. From each end of 
these " entries " opened rooms large and square, 
leading again into other rooms, and on the lower 
floor the whole front of the great chimney made 
the cheer of the long kitchen. 

Beyond the house were the many out-build- 
ings; the L covering both a well and a fireplace, 

18 



THE TOUCH OF TIME 

the " end-kitchen," the little house that made 
quarters for some of the slaves, the smoke-house 
and wood-sheds, and beyond these, across the 
garden, were the great barns giving shelter to 
the various animals that bespoke the necessities 
of the day when each family lived principally 
upon its own resources, and there another well 
with a long " sweep " repeated the house-lines 
in its slope. 

Built in 1758, the house had been the birth- 
place of nine children, and its hospitable door 
was ever open not only for friend and kindred, 
but for the stranger as well. From it had gone 
forth much that tended to the growth and well- 
being of the neighboring towns, and, in its 
measure, the never-ending influence of good 

lives and right living on the race. 

19 



II 

NEW ENGLAND PIONEERS 

The hardships of the pioneer, in any land, 
result largely from seventy of climate and the 
distance from those necessities of life that the 
new country does not supply, while his success 
depends upon more than industry and persever- 
ance. The Mayflower company and the 25,000 
colonists that came to New England in the first 
twenty years of its settling brought with their 
carved chests, their big Bibles, their supply of 
linen and pewter, a store of faith and courage, 
of fine enthusiasm and unflinching purpose, to 
be daunted neither by fear of the savage nor the 
might of Nature's barriers, proving the force of 
civilization in subduing the untamed native, and 
making of rock, and tree, and soil, both friend 
and vassal. 

Twenty years from the landing at Plymouth 

20 



NEW ENGLAND PIONEERS 

Rock found the first great Indian war success- 
fully ended, and hundreds of settlements, not 
only along the coasts and by the mouths of the 
rivers, but the wilderness had been threaded, 
and homes were set beside the upper waters. 
Following an inherent law of succession — where 
man has been man will be — the footprint of the 
outgoing Indian proved often a loadstone to 
the incoming colonist. The site of clustered 
wigwams became a centre for groups of low log- 
houses, soon superseded by more ambitious 
dwellings as numbers grew and various crafts- 
men put their hands to the up-building. 

Cupheag, on Long Island Sound, near the 
mouth of the Housatonic River, deserted by the 
red man after the " Swamp Fight " at Fairfield, 
thus became the foundation settlement for a 
band of pioneers from the Connecticut colony at 
Hartford. Friendly relations were established 
with the not-far-ofT Indian, who, charmed by the 
adornments and appliances of civilization, gladly 
exchanged broad tracts of the one commodity 
that to him seemed inexhaustible — land — for 
coats and kettles, for knives and rifles, for 
spoons and powder, until eventually groups and 

21 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

ranges of forest-covered hills were added to the 
township, stretching its measure on the river 
twelve miles northward, and spreading seven or 
eight to the west. Extent of territory was the 
aim of towns and of individuals. Great pur- 
chases were made and divided by " lot " among 
the original proprietors, thus giving to Ameri- 
cans the term still used to designate a portion 
of land. 

In western Connecticut the upland soil is often 
richer than that of the valleys, and as adventur- 
ous spirits were not lacking, centres of settle- 
ment focussed here and there among the 
clustering hills, until Stratford, as Cupheag 
became to the while man, increasing in power 
and numbers, formed one of the most important 
towns in the Colony. 

In 1686 a young Englishman arrived at its 
port of entry, applied for permission to build a 
warehouse and dock, and successfully conducted 
a large shipping and mercantile business. In 
1692 he made fitting choice, for a bride, of a 
Wethersfield maiden, the granddaughter of one 
of the early colonial governors, and closely al- 
lied to other prominent families of the older 

22 



NEW ENGLAND PIONEERS 

settlements. Early in 1700 these two, Daniel 
and Elizabeth, with their children, removed 
from Stratford village to Long Hill, about eight 
miles northward, where Daniel's landed interest 
was a tract two miles square, reaching eastward 
through Corum to the river. Near the crest of 
Long Hill he built him a house. 

Fashion knows no law, but, while it may result 
from a freak, or fancy, or even a mischance in 
the weaving, it is sometimes the result of so pro- 
saic a cause as taxes. Queen Anne laid a tax on 
all two-story houses in the colonies, and the most 
loyal subject was justified in planning his house- 
walls to avoid an unnecessary expenditure. 
This tax gave rise to an architecture graceful 
and inviting, with long curving roofs sloping 
evenly from each side of the ridge-pole to the 
upper line of the first story, thus giving but one 
story that would count, while the roof covered 
two or three more. The first house built on 
Long Hill was of this order, and it was believed 
that this beautiful level hill-crest, with its outlook 
across the Sound to the shores of Long Island, 
would prove a "centre;" but fate, like fashion, 

takes its own course, and the real centre for this 

23 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

district developed four miles westward, where 
the east and west " spraynes " of the Far-Mill 
River joined their forces at the favorite Indian 
rendezvous of Acquunkquoke — " high-land." 

With this district and centre Daniel was 
closely identified from the beginning, naming it 
Repton, in memory of his English home, and 
gathering its able-bodied men under his com- 
mand as lieutenant of the " train-band," the 
highest officer the small parish could then sus- 
tain, sixty-four men being necessary to allow a 
captaincy. 

Queen Anne died, and the tax-law changed; 

Daniel's children reaching maturity, a larger 

house was built almost in touch with the old 

one, but although both have disappeared, the 

lilac-bushes still stand by the old stone-wall, and 

tell the tale of parents and children, of young 

men and maidens, who lived and loved. 

24 



Ill 

THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS 

In 1728 Daniel died, leaving, besides the 
widow Elizabeth, two daughters and seven sons. 
The daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah, were 
already married. Joseph, the eldest son, having 
married his second cousin, Mary of Glastonbury, 
had lifted his roof-tree not far from that of his 
father, and Daniel Jr., having found his Mary in 
Fairfield, had been assigned a part of the pater- 
nal estate in Corum. In 1733 Thaddeus, the 
third son, following Joseph's example, won for 
his queen and consort Esther, the sister of Mary 
of Glastonbury, and decided to settle on a cer- 
tain tract of two hundred and sixty acres, a part 
of his inheritance, lying near Stratford's extreme 
northern boundary, called the Upper White 

Hills. 

25 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

Roads were still few and only an Indian trail 
led into, and through, this unbroken forest; but, 
with axe and energy, the trail widened, a site 
was chosen, a clearing made, the small house 
built after Queen Anne's fashion took form, 
and the home in the wilderness was not without 
comfort. Queen Esther must have borne her 
lord a large love to be willing to leave the colo- 
nial centre for this isolation, and brave natures 
were those of all who were not deterred from 
frontier life by thought of the uncertain Indian 
or prowling wolves. 

The house was set back about ten rods from 

the road, the gable end facing it and the south, 

and a great door opened into the chief room 

with its wide fireplace and oven. At one side 

and at the back were other rooms, a staircase led 

to the half-story above, and adjoining the house, 

at an angle, was the additional building for the 

slaves, then a part of so many households. 

Across the front of the house ran an uncovered 

porch, two great stones leading from it down 

to the stretch of meadow that lay between the 

house and the path out to the world. The land 

sloped slightly on the western side, giving free 

26 



THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS 

entrance to the cellar, which in its turn had both 
fireplace and oven. 

No other house was in sight, and as neighbors 
came, one at a mile's distance was counted near. 
But a man did not mind a long stretch of acres 
between him and his neighbor if only they were 
his own acres, and solitude was not then out of 
fashion. Those were days without hurry, and 
neither time nor effort was an objectionable fac- 
tor. Life was busy with its necessities and its 
primitive limitations; ambition was for the 
future, not for the present. 

Queen Esther loved her liege and her little 
home, and when a boy was born to them to bear 
the name of his grandfather Daniel, her heart 
glowed with pride. And she loved her flower- 
garden, the lilacs and syringas, and the roses 
she had brought from her Glastonbury home, 
the white Star of Bethlehem and bunches of 
green live-for-ever; and she cherished a root of 
wormwood, and sweet sicily, and other herbs of 
value to the medical laity. But among all these 
children of the soil she loved best her bed of 
lilies, the large tawny-yellow garden-lily, that 

sends up from its cluster of narrow, curving 

27 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

leaves a tall stem, to be crowned with gay blos- 
soms. So, if an Indian came on no more un- 
comfortable errand than a thirst for cider, and 
the only wolf's-brush she saw was motionless, 
life had little cause for fear and much for 

rejoicing. 

28 



IV 
QUEEN ESTHER'S HOUSEHOLD 

Toil and tool won their way through the 
forest. The Indian's trail became the white 
man's highway, and the great trees had other 
destiny than to be always pointing skyward. 
The wide chimney-place called them to her burn- 
ing heart; they must be dressed on the ground 
where they fell for the great barns that were to 
be built; and lands afar that lacked them proved 
their value for export. 

Nature scattered her boulders in New Eng- 
land with an unstinting hand; but the rich 
virgin soil repaid the labor of separation, and 
the long lines of stone-walls that divide field 
from field testify to the untiring energy and 
labor. They are now frosted with beautiful 
lichens that have spread their starry growth 

through a hundred and fifty years and more, 

29 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

and tell to-day's wayfarer of the skill and pa- 
tience of the hands, white and black, and perhaps 
red too, though the Indian liked not hard work, 
that thus put nature in bonds. Field after field 
lifted a smooth face to the bending skies, till the 
level hill-tops and sloping hill-sides were check- 
ered with wheat and rye, with flax and barley, 
with corn and clover; and the barns grew wider 
and the coffers fuller, while the fulness of con- 
tent reigned within the little house, as Nature's 
largess did without. 

Although the elder Daniel died in 1728, his 
estate was not finally divided until after the 
death of his widow, nearly twenty years later. 
Daniel had grown in wealth, and as England 
had laid a restraining hand on manufacturing, 
land was almost the only investment. His hold- 
ings covered large tracts in towns far and near, 
and he retained a mercantile interest as part 
owner of the sloop " Indeavor," that flitted be- 
tween the various colonial ports and the West 
Indies. His estate inventoried nearly £9000, of 
which about £1000 was " money out in bonds, 
principal and interest." Five guns served in the 

defence and provisioning of the household. 

30 



QUEEN ESTHER'S HOUSEHOLD 

The live-stock comprised 10 horses and mares, 
3 colts, 13 cows, 17 calves, 16 oxen, 40 sheep, 5 
swine, and 10 pigs, to which may be added 8 
slaves, one of whom was an Indian valued at £45. 
Although the furnishings of the day included 
little beyond practical ones, those were in abun- 
dance. Coarse earthenware and hollow iron 
vessels were made early in colonial days; Eng- 
lish pewter and brass-ware supplemented these, 
and the wooden vessels that, made at hand, 
formed a large part of the household service. 
Holland supplied the finer linen and blankets. 
Niceties of dress, English broadcloth with large 
silver buttons, muslin neck-cloths, all the better 
clothing and adornments of the women, were of 
importance and were brought across the seas. 
Books, as far as obtainable, ever came into the 
life, and, even although the list shows them as 
unattractive in their nature as " Arguments be- 
tween ye Church and Dissentry," "Concern- 
ing ye Catechism/' " Concerning Quakers," " A 
Sermon Book," etc., religious subjects being of 
paramount interest, they were highly valued. 
But the prize of the small library of two Bibles, 
two service books, ten bound books and "four- 

31 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

teen small books with paper covers and with- 
out," was the " Great History Book " — Dug- 
dale's History of the Late Troubles in England, 
1680, a large folio that Daniel had brought with 
him from his fatherland, in the carved chest, 
with the little red morocco and the " guilded " 
leather trunk-shaped boxes, the delicate steel 
pipe, and other relics safely harbored on the 
shores of to-day. 

Following the English custom, the eldest son 
received a double portion, and the " setting out " 
of the daughters at marriage formed usually the 
chief part of their allotment. Such division of 
this estate was gradually made as the needs of 
the children required. When Daniel died Eliza- 
beth had still five unmarried sons, but within a 
decade John died; Thaddeus, Samuel, James, 
and finally Josiah, the youngest, married. Ac- 
cording to custom, Josiah remained with his 
mother, although Elizabeth did not, as was 
usual, maintain a separate life in part of the old 
home, but was still mistress-in-chief of the entire 
house. 

Thaddeus's marriage, like that of Joseph, was 

especially pleasing to her, for Mary and Esther 

32 



QUEEN ESTHER'S HOUSEHOLD 

were of her kindred. They had many common 
interests, their family home being in touch with 
the one she left so long ago when Daniel won 
her youthful allegiance. And when the glad 
news came that a young Daniel had opened his 
eyes on the world, neither her threescore and 
five years nor the rough journey deterred her 
from hastening to pay her homage, and to hold 
to her heart this successor to her dear husband's 
name and lineage. 

Thaddeus had inherited one of his father's 
slaves, an African born, named Cufifee, and Es- 
ther's handmaid, Dorcas, had cast her spell 
over him when, as body-servant, he had accom- 
panied his master to Glastonbury. This pair, 
duly married, had their place in the wing 
of Thaddeus's house, and proving themselves 
trustworthy, as the summer days grew long and 
the breeze blew soft, they were left in charge 
for a few days, while the little family made a 
joyful pilgrimage to the ancestral home. Thad- 
deus's best pacing-mare being duly saddled and 
pillioned, the full saddle-bags adjusted, and the 
last directions given to the darker part of the 

household, Thaddeus threw himself into the sad- 

33 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

die, and then from the porch's end Esther 
mounted, settled herself well on the pillion, with 
her feet resting on the little narrow shelf made 
for their support. Cuffee busied himself mak- 
ing sure that the dark blue pillion-cloth pro- 
tected her dress from the horse's flank, while 
Dorcas held the precious baby till all should, be 
in order. Then Esther, receiving him, held him 
fast and comfortably with her left arm, a dust- 
cloth of striped linen was carefully tucked about 
her, and under her feet, and, putting her right 
arm around her husband's waist, all were ready 
to start. 

The mouse-colored mare paced carefully as if 
she knew what a precious burden she carried. 
Thaddeus gave an occasional word of warning 
that Esther might grip his coat tightly as a 
rough stretch of road or a steep descent lay 
before them, turning a happy face over his 
shoulder when safer ground was reached, and 
quickening the mare's gait on a long level, laid 
his hand tenderly over Esther's as she held to 
him. The baby slept and waked to meet the 
loving eyes of which he was already so sure. As 
they passed the occasional houses a friendly 

34 



QUEEN ESTHER'S HOUSEHOLD 

greeting came from open window or door-yard, 
but Thaddeus did not draw rein until the long 
eight miles were safely travelled and his respon- 
sibility over, as the dear old home he had left for 
the still dearer small one was outlined against 
the sky, and his mother at open door, in her 
second-best black crape gown, with white linen 
hand-ruffles, muslin apron and cap, waited in 
welcome. Many hands, white and black, sought 
to aid in the alighting, to take the young 
heir from his mother's arms, to carry in the 
saddle-bags, to remove Esther's light riding- 
cloak, and to give the mare loving pats and tell 
her she had brought her valuable burden safely. 
Joseph and Mary came down the highway with 
their pair of toddling little girls, brothers and 
sisters meeting joyfully, while the little ones 
gazed in awe at the wonderful double-cousin. 

So there was joy in all hearts, as there was 
plenty at the long table, set out with the best 
Holland napkins, with shining pewter tank- 
ards and plates and basons; over the coals in the 
chafing-dish savory meat was cooking, and flip 
steaming in the large tankard that a health 
might be drunk to the new-comer. 

35 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

The baby Daniel, come to receive the bene- 
diction of his grandfather's roof, was praised by 
the tall uncles, adored by the enthusiastic slaves, 
and caressed by his grandmother to the delight 
of his parents, then safely put to sleep under 
the fine Dutch blankets in the " wainscot " 
(panelled) bed hung with dimity curtains and 
valances, in the " great chamber," where a fire 
was lighted lest some lingering breath of winter 
might be in hiding. While the brothers, wan- 
dering from field to field, or sitting on the wide 
door-stone, talked their man's talk of land and 
live-stock, of tax and interest, of church and 
state, the fire burned low in the deep chimney- 
place, glinting now and then on the women's 
gold beads or on the rings on Elizabeth's thin 
hand, as she and the child of her adoption took 
sweet counsel, every vision of Esther's for her 
infant son recalling to the woman whose 
earthly life was so nearly completed her own 
young hopes and dreams, and she lifted a grate- 
ful heart for the true, manly sons and faithful 
daughters who arose to call her blessed, proving 
in themselves that in her widowhood she was 

blessed. 

36 



V 

BLACK AND WHITE 

The savage side of life was still active. Eye 
and ear were alert, not only lest the friendliest 
Indian might become a foe, but also for sign of 
bear or wolf or " rattler." Courage was always 
at hand and " on guard," the signal of safety. 
The seasons waxed- and waned, and it was with 
an ever thankful heart that the young mother 
sang the lullaby dear to hundreds of thousands 
that speak the English tongue: 

"Hush! my dear; lie still and slumber, 
Holy angels guard thy bed, 
Heavenly blessings without number 
Gently fall upon thy head." 

The baby outgrew his cradle and was pro- 
moted to a trundle-bed, and, although no brother 
or sister was born to him, little Jube (Jubal), the 

child of Cuffee and Dorcas, was his playmate, 

37 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

friend, and slave. By the winter fireside, as 
Esther sat at one end of the chimney-place 
turning the flax-wheel with her foot and deftly 
spinning the thread, the two boys, white and 
black, sat on a bright red rug before the fire, 
building houses of corn-cobs, and when the 
summer sun glowed through the branches of 
the great oak-tree that shaded the house, the 
large wheel was set on the porch, so that as Es- 
ther stepped back and forth, turning the wheel 
with one hand and holding the rolls of carded 
wool with the other, her watchful eye kept in 
sight the children playing on the shady grass. 
As they grew older, both were called to her 
side to learn the Lord's Prayer, and from the 
New England Primer not only the alphabet, 

but those lessons mystical indeed to the young 

mind: 

" In Adam's fall 
We sin-ned all." 

" Xerxes did die, 
And so must I." 

The law of all the New England colonies made 

early provision for the establishment of schools. 

Each town was divided, fifty families being re- 

38 



BLACK AND WHITE 

quired to make a " district " and to support a 
" district school." To avoid taxes, the school 
buildings were placed on the highways, and 
frequently near cross-roads. The increase of 
settlers in this part of the great town of Strat- 
ford did not call for a school within a moderate 
distance of Thaddeus's house until Daniel had 
learned all that the little primer could teach, and 
could also read from the great Bible, or the 
Prayer Book, with ease and understanding. 
The prize of early education was the mother's to 
bestow, and its value was fully realized. 

The clearing of land, the tilling of the soil, and 
preparing for export the various products, were 
not the only occupations of the householder. 
He was hunter also, and royal game awaited 
the wary and skilful. The blunderbuss proved 
an effective instrument. Its bore, slightly flaring 
and well loaded with buckshot, could hit more 
than one mark among a flock of wild turkeys, 
whose heads were clustered over carefully scat- 
tered corn. And where was the white or dark- 
skinned boy or man who could not build an 
ambush of brush and wait patiently, weapon in 
hand, for the descending flock? Deer also were 

39 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

decoyed by salt placed at the base of rocks be- 
hind which the hunter might safely wait, and 
wild pigeons in their autumnal flight were 
caught in a " spring-pole net " so carefully set 
that when the flock were busy over the kernels 
of grain, the man or boy concealed behind a 
breastwork of brush could spring the net over 
them all. There were quails, and partridges, and 
gray squirrels, in the native forests, the deep 
brooks near the river yielded trout, while the 
river itself was a highway, not only for lesser 
fish, but for the well-bred shad and even the 
royal salmon. Nor was the Sound too far to 
prevent its delicate shell-fish from adding their 
variety, while its shores lent samphire and wild 
asparagus to the list of lighter foods that the 
smooth fields and gardens afforded. 

And Daniel grew tall and straight and slim 
like the young saplings in the sprout-land, a joy 
and a comfort to those who sought always to set 
his feet in right paths, while Jube, proud of his 
young master, faithful and devoted in his ser- 
vice, was ever his right hand. 

40 



VI 

CHURCH AND MEETING 

By the time the years had slipped along the 
string of the century till fifty were counted, 
many daring spirits had broken ground and set 
their dwellings on various hills and in the for- 
ests, so shortly before the home of only the na- 
tive beasts and children. Civilization sent its 
smoke heavenward and opened shaded places to 
the light and warmth of sunny skies; the paths 
were no longer those pressed by tread of 
moccasin, but the iron-shod horse and ox 
wore the grass from the soil, and highways that 
mark the white man threaded the forests and 
wound between the cultivated fields. But few 
Indian names remained, the Yankee preferring 
those more significant to himself. 

Repton, or " Ripton," as with supreme indif- 
ference to vowel sounds it became, included in 

41 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

those years a large district, and its principal and 
central settlement was " the Centre " for all the 
outlying branches. Like most New England 
villages, it was clustered about a green, a long 
narrow triangle in form, which was indeed the 
very 'heart of that centre — its discipline, its con- 
science, its faith. At the northern end — the 
base of the triangle — stood whipping-post and 
stocks, a little stretch of green lay between 
them and the meeting-house, which, on the 
other side, was separated by a school-house from 
the church; the church was in an upper corner 
of the graveyard, the church-people being 
buried near the walls they loved, the meeting- 
folk beyond, and the slaves against the farther 
fence. In fact, this green was an epitome of 
human life as conceived at that day, starting 
with total depravity, symbolized in whipping- 
post and stocks, through school and church, by 
lesson, prayer, and psalm, down to the grave, 
the common end of all. 

If a bird's-eye view could be vouchsafed of one 
of those far-away Sunday mornings, it would 
show a net-work of roads crossing, binding, sur- 
rounding, the successions of hills, ridges, and val- 

42 



CHURCH AND MEETING 

leys, and from the various localities, from Bag- 
burn and Barn Hill, from Moose Hill and Wal- 
nut Tree Hill, from Booth's Hill and Long Hill, 
from Corum and The Landing, from Paul's 
Pound and Fool's Hatch, from Isinglass and 
Trap-fall, from Pishponk and Hammertown,from 
Turkey Roost and Knells' Rocks, from all points 
of the compass, the face of man and beast turned 
toward " the Centre." Distances were often 
great, but Time was then a slave, not a master, 
and, taken by the forelock, four or six miles 
of jog-trot or easy pacing might well be ac- 
complished. The meeting-house was a plain, 
barrack-like structure in exterior, but the in- 
terior, with its large square pews, was not un- 
inviting. The pulpit was high, with a sounding- 
board above it, and the deacon's seat below, 
before which was an adjustable shelf serving 
for the communion table. The pews had very 
high backs, showing only the heads of the oc- 
cupants, and with seats on the four sides. The 
seat next the aisle was short, being broken by 
the door, and the one facing the pulpit being 
naturally the seat of honor, the other side seat 
and that with the back to the pulpit were the 

43 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

last to be occupied. As the feeble and aged 
naturally sought support when standing during 
the long prayer, the custom arose of turning 
from the pulpit in order to rest the hand on the 
back of the seat. 

The choir occupied the middle gallery, seats 
being assigned to the slaves in the side galleries, 
men and women sitting on different sides. 

The church was also an unpretentious build- 
ing, nearly square, with a bell-tower and pointed 
windows. The pews and galleries were like 
those in the meeting-house, and the pulpit was 
the very high " three-decker " with reading-desk 
below it, and the altar below that. In both 
houses of worship the music was led by a 
chorister, who, having found the key in which 
the chant or psalm was to be sung, sounded the 
note on his wooden pitch-pipe, then, those sing- 
ing the different parts being properly grouped, 
with a bow to each set of men-singers and 
women-singers, he gave to each the desired note 
for air, counter, bass, and tenor; then all sounded 
their individual notes in unison, and then started 
the psalm for the congregation to follow. The 
pitch-pipe remained in use till the tuning-fork 

44 



CHURCH AND MEETING 

was invented, that giving place early in this 
century to a bassoon in the church, and a bass- 
viol in the meeting-house, until organs sup- 
planted both. 

The sermon was the chief intellectual feast of 
the time, and some of those that have reached 
the hand of to-day are written on a score or less 
of small pages, 4x6 inches in size, stitched to- 
gether with a thread of linen or of blue yarn — 
mere headings for discourses that must have 
held their hearers through a long hour. It was 
an age of thought, not of research, and the 
preacher, however great his power, or loved in 
person, must recognize the fact that a jury of 
deep-thinking hearers would sit in judgment 
upon any tinge of unorthodoxy, any letting-up 
on doctrine or pulling-down of standard; that 
the word spoken must be like apples of gold in 
pictures of silver. 

The mind of the day was argumentative. 
Each man thought his own thoughts and longed 
to measure them with others. So much manual 
employment gave opportunity for reflection, and 
the comparative isolation made argument, when 

opportunity offered, natural and welcome. The 

45 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

Sunday sermons were the event of the week, 
and the legitimate subjects for comment, for crit- 
icism or approval. A knotty point was a ker- 
nel for meditation and discussion, and woe to 
the preacher who imagined his people napping 
when he tripped in a statement! 

Women and men were alike interested in 
these subjects, for, although the New England 
ministers, who were really the public educators, 
had, since the days of Anne Hutchinson's defi- 
ance, discouraged the instruction of women in 
more than reading and writing, their minds, as 
alert and interested as those of the men, were 
not a whit behind in their measure and judg- 
ment. And it was this absorbing interest in 
sacred things, this centering of the mind on 
questions pertaining to eternity, that gave to 
them, as Emerson said, " that refinement which 
no education and no habit of society can bestow, 
that delicacy and grandeur of bearing which be- 
long to a mind accustomed to celestial conversa- 
tion." "Beauty cannot be separated from the 

eternal.' , 

4 6 



VII 

THE SUNDAY OUTING 

The Church had had a hard struggle to gain 
a foothold in the New England colonies. The 
Churchman as well as the Puritan was moved 
by the spirit of adventure — " the vent which 
Destiny offers " — and to prove the promise of 
gain in a new country. That the Puritan 
brought with him, to exercise toward the 
Baptist, the Quaker, the Churchman, the same 
spirit of intolerance from which he fled, was 
part of humanity's circumference and sure to 
appear as the wheel turned. The Churchman 
accepted the situation, taking his children to the 
meeting-house for baptism, and joining the 
Half-way Covenant, until the keenest edge of 
Puritanism had been worn down and he was 
allowed to build and to worship according to his 
desires. But a barrier remained. Church-folk 

47 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

and meeting-folk drew apart, though the gulf 
was often bridged by matrimonial alliances, mar- 
riage, whether resulting from a random shot or 
a nice adjustment of the balances, being always 
a leveller of distinctions. 

The Church which the elder Daniel was in- 
strumental in planting in Ripton grew in power, 
his children to the third and fourth generations 
being blessed by its offices, serving also in turn 
among its chief supporters. Its first permanent 
rector, the Rev. Christopher Newton, having 
gone to England in 1755, as all must at that time, 
to receive Episcopal ordination, lived out a long 
life among his flock, and the meeting-house had, 
for over fifty years, in the Rev. Jedediah Mills, 
no less saintly or beloved a pastor. 

There seems an irony of fate in the fact that, 
despite Puritan prejudice, in part of Connecti- 
cut at least, a custom obtained for several gen- 
erations of calling the Church clergyman 
" parson " and the one at the meeting-house 
" priest." The cause is unsolved, but " Parson 
Newton " and " Priest Mills " were familiar 
terms of those far-off years. 

The regular church-rate was two pence on the 

48 



THE SUNDAY OUTING 

pound of the individual's tax-list, or its equiva- 
lent in any of the necessaries of living at their 
market value. A minister's saddle-bags might 
bring home from a parochial visit part of a pa- 
rishoner's dues in cheese or vegetables, or a load 
of hickory wood left at his door served a like 
purpose. Mr. Mills's salary was at first fifty 
pounds a year, " to be increased as the society 
became able to do so." In 1800 the salary of the 
rector of the Episcopal church was fixed at 
" one hundred pounds lawful money and forty 
loads of wood." 

Fierce must be the elements or decided the 
physical weakness that diverted master or mis- 
tress, child or slave, from the Sunday outing. 
And save under stress of storm, those living be- 
yond the Centre found the journey itself not 
devoid of interest. The jog-trot by a neighbor's 
side, the chance meetings at cross-roads which 
might hold charm for the young people, the easy 
canter to overtake the sturdy farmer with a de- 
mure damsel behind him on a pillion, who was 
recognized from afar; the lagging behind, 
whether a-foot or a-horseback, as the hill-road 

and its riders were plainly seen; the chance, un- 

49 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

trammelled by one's own affairs, to measure 
those of others, the fields of grain, the cord-wood 
piled, the house a-building; and from many a 
turn in the various roads a glimpse far or near 
of the blue Sound and the white shore of Long 
Island, with sometimes a whiff of salt-breeze as 
if the scudding sails had sent it. There were 
greetings before the church-porch, assiduous as- 
sisting to alight at the convenient horse-block, 
and subdued chuckles as the negroes flashed 
their eyes in recognition. Then in the solemn 
hours of service, though children might fidget 
and tithing-men be active in keeping lawless 
spirits restrained, priest and parson were para- 
mount, teaching, leading, inspiring attentive 
souls, fervent themselves and rousing fervor in 
others. 

The churches were cold, but the theology, 
especially in the meeting-house, was hot. 
" Coal-scuttle bonnets " and foot-stoves had not 
" come in." The women all wore hoods, thicker 
or thinner according to season, which were 
thrown back during the service. In the church 
the collection was received on pewter plates re- 
served for the purpose; in the meeting-house 

50 



THE SUNDAY OUTING 

the deacons spread their bandanna handker- 
chiefs over their tall hats and received therein 
the alms of the faithful. 

The Sunday nooning for those who came from 
far, with generous luncheon baskets always car- 
ried on the left arm of paterfamilias as he sat in 
the saddle, was spent in winter before a fire in 
the " Sabba-day house," directly back of the 
meeting-house, or in summer beneath the 
primeval oak standing on the green, whose wide 
branches could shelter threescore or more, or 
wandering in the churchyard among graves old 
and new. 

To Thaddeus and his small family the Sunday 
journey was ever welcome, for the assured meet- 
ing of brothers and their wives, whose homes 
lay eight or ten rough miles apart, was a joyful 
anticipation. And the widow Elizabeth in her 
old age could sometimes see from her place in 
the square pew every one of the dear sons with 
their good wives, Joseph and Mary his wife, 
Daniel and Mary his wife, Thaddeus and Esther, 
Samuel and Abigail, James and Anna, while by 
her side were Josiah, her youngest born, and 

Eunice his wife, with their little Charity. 

51 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

The service over, there were happy greetings 
and much interchange of news of each other's 
welfare, counsel to be asked of the wiser 
mothers, and tidings of far-off friends and kin- 
dred, and often in the long summer days Thad- 
deus, with Esther behind him and little Daniel 
astride a small pillow laid in front of the saddle, 
made a happy trio to join the family dinner at 
one of the other houses, ere they took the longer 

road home before the twilight. 

52 



VIII 

WHEN THE HEIR CAME OF AGE. 

In 1756 young Daniel came of age, a very tall 
and very slim youth, with the dark hair and gray 
eyes of his race showing from under the beaver 
hat which was the badge of manhood. For that 
day he was well educated, his mother's teaching 
being supplemented by the instruction of the 
winter terms at the district school during several 
years, and he had struggled alone during long 
winter evenings with Ward's " The Young 
Mathematician's Guide, in 5 Parts, Arithmetick 
Vulgar and Decimal with all the useful Rules, 
and a General Method of Extracting the Roots 
of all Single Powers. Algebra or Arithmetick 
in Species; wherein the Method of Raising and 
Resolving ^Equations is rendered Easy. Also 
the Business of Interest and Annuities per- 
formed by the Pen. The Elements of Geome- 

53 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

try Contracted and Analytically Demonstrated; 
Conick Sections. The Arithmetick of Affinities 
Explained and rendered easy. With an appen- 
dix of Practical Guaging." 

He delighted also in Martin's Grammar of 
Philosophy that taught in Rollo-book fashion, 
by dialogue, " The Present State of Experi- 
mental Physiology or Natural Philosophy in 4 
Parts. Somatology, Cosmology, Aerology, and 
Geology/' the book being well illustrated, its 
subjects covering the animal kingdom, the celes- 
tial bodies, the muscular processes, the diatonic 
scale, and others, with touches like the follow- 
ing: 

" Pray, Sir, what do you mean by Electric- 
ity? " 

" A certain kind of attractive Faculty peculiar 
to some Bodies, as Amber, Jet, Sealing Wax, 
Glass, etc., whose Particles are such that being 
greatly rarified and agitated (by the Heat oc- 
casioned by attrition or Rubbing of them) they 
fly off to a certain small Distance, but not be- 
yond the Sphere of the Body's Attraction; and 
therefore by this Attraction they are obliged to 

return again to their old Quarters." A note ex- 

54 



WHEN THE HEIR CAME OF AGE 

plains further that " Electricity consists of fine 
invisible Effluvia supposed to be of an unctuous 
or oily Nature, which are excited by Attrition," 
and experiments with a glass-tube are given, 
explaining also that " Tersion or Wiping is also 
necessary as well as Attrition to procure Elec- 
tricity; for this frees the Pores for the better 
emission of the Effluvia. If the Fingers be 
moved nimbly near the Tube, as if you meant 
to strike it in a direction perpendicular to its 
axis, the Effluvia will be heard to snap against 
the Fingers, or against the Tube, like the Crack- 
ling of a green Leaf in the Fire, but not so loud." 
For the laws of speech, that period, as did 
nearly all the century, showed much indif- 
ference, and had not the great Lord Bacon said 
that English was an unfit vehicle to bear a 
scholar's work to posterity? Spelling was 
phonetic, for which each man might formulate 
his own system — or systems — as spelling Indian, 
" Injun," to-day, was no reason why it might 
not be " Ingen " or even " Ingon " to-morrow. 
" Cichon " served sometimes for kitcJien, " A Par 
of Soels for his Shouse " was readily understood, 

and even proper names were subject to varia- 

55 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

tions. Grammar, never taught in the district- 
schools until the latter part of the century, suf- 
fered also from too many standards of usage, 
and those who would attain the purest ideal 
were hampered by the contagion of customs less 
exact. 

Daniel was learned also in the practical side 
of life. He could direct all labor required 
by the soil and its products, and, if necessary, 
set his own hand to the work, and he had a 
keen sense of the value of what the land pro- 
duced, proving the recompense of the colonial 
commerce. Every large land-holder of the day 
was not a mere farmer, but a man of affairs; he 
was exporter and importer as well as agricul- 
turist, and, in a small degree, merchant also. 
The owner of wide acres could accommodate a 
smaller neighbor with grain for seed, or grind- 
ing, and his slaves might be hired by the day, 
as might also his " five-cattle team " (two yokes 
of oxen and a horse) for drawing timber, or his 
" jade " (mare) to go to mill. And, taking ad- 
vantage of the colonists' chief pecuniary benefit, 
the West India trade, by which alone hard cash 

came to the colonies — England keeping the bal- 

56 



WHEN THE HEIR CAME OF AGE 

ance of trade on her side in the exchange of 
American products for her own manufactures, 
and imports from other countries — he could af- 
ford to import a hogshead of rum or of molasses, 
and would he not willingly dispense it to his 
neighbors by quart or gallon? Trouble never 
entered into the consideration; and when one 
man killed a calf, a sheep, or a " critter " (beef), 
he divided the fresh meat with his neighbor, who 
in turn divided with him. A lone widow must 
have her garden ploughed and other heavy work 
done by his slaves. For many of these accounts 
the daily tally was kept in chalk, on the dark 
side of the door at the head of the cellar stairs, 
but all sooner or later were recorded in the long 
narrow account-books, that, having safely floated 
down the stream of years, testify in their fashion 
to much of the daily life. In many instances the 
accounts were kept in one book, for both parties, 
the " Dr." and " Contra " pages facing, where 
the blacksmith's account for shoeing horses and 
oxen, for making tires and hinges, " puling a 
tuth " (tooth) or " up-seting a Ax " is set 
against bushels of turnips, of corn or wheat, 

hours of labor, etc., with an occasional balancing, 

57 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

giving " resete in full for_all aCompts from 
the Beginning of the World to this day," duly 
signed by both parties. Sometimes an entry 
reads — " Then reckoned with A. B. and bal- 
lanced all aCompts from the beginning of the 
World to this Day and find there is Due me 
Seven Shillings and Six Pence as witness our 
hands "; or " Compared books with Jonas Peck 
and witness our hands": — signed by both 
parties. 

Thaddeus had largely increased his acres, 
clearing wide tracts, which rendered a return of 
sure value for export. Civilization held more 
and more in its hand for the pioneers in this wil- 
derness. Tea had come into use, and the tiny 
China tea-cups were dear to every woman's 
heart, and Esther had her share of everything 
furnished by the stores in Ripton and by those 
of Derby and New Haven. 

Daniel, the son of her love and pride, was of 
age. Marriage was desirable, but there were 
heart-burnings lest his choice be not to her mind. 
Rank, though unnamed, was none the less a real- 
ity, but even princes had been known to wed 

unwisely. Thaddeus and she had long before 

58 



WHEN THE HEIR CAME OF AGE 

decided upon his start in life. Esther herself had 
chosen the site for the great house that should 
be built for this their darling and their only heir. 
On the crest of a hill commanding a far outlook 
north, and east, and south, was a wide plateau, 
flanked east and south by a rocky breastwork. 
It was about half a mile from their own home, 
the road winding through a grove, despoiled of 
its heavy timber but shaded with young birches 
and maples, with oaks and chestnuts, and lead- 
ing past green meadows and well-tilled fields. 

Esther cast an anxious or an interested glance 
at this or that maiden to whom her son showed 
some courtesy, or whose society he sought. 
Once they had made a memorable journey, she 
on pillion behind her tall son, to her dear old 
home in Glastonbury, hoping, as in her own case, 
that the young man's fancy might see in some 
fair kinswoman an irresistible charm. But his 
heart lay deep, and no glance or word stirred it, 
until he neared his twenty-second year. Then, 
despite that potent factor in match-making, 
" the mighty goddess of propinquity," and the 
fact that novelty charms but custom endears, de- 
spite the power of adjoining acres in tightening 

59 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

bonds, it was not a maiden of the hill-country 
but one down in Stratford village, a small, fair, 
seventeen-year-old Mary that held the power. 
So he bent himself before her, and sued for the 
prize; and her hand was placed in his, and her 
love and fealty sworn, and the foundations were 
laid for the great house, while Mary embroid- 
ered her wedding finery and the elder people 

held conclave over the plenishing. 

60 



IX 

THE BUILDING OF THE HOUSE 

Ambition's hour had arrived. In the neces- 
sities of the pioneer, it is first the axe, then the 
saw-mill. In 1725, two of Stratford's prominent 
citizens received permission from the General 
Court at Hartford to erect a saw-mill on the 
Half- Way River, which separated the northern 
part of this far-reaching township from its 
neighbor, Newtown. This mill was soon supple- 
mented by another, on the " nere sprayne " of 
the Far-Mill River, which, from its source in a 
swamp among these upper hills, quickly gained 
power and volume sufficient to turn a wheel. 
The increase of householders brought skilful 
workmen to the hill-tops, and the time had come 
when fancy could have play in panel and mould- 
ing, in curves and turnings, for although the 

reigning fashion made the exterior of even this 

61 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

great house neither graceful nor attractive, in 
the interior at least the practical might be sup- 
plemented by the ornamental. 

So, the cellar being dug and foundations laid, 
the great chimney, twelve feet square at its base, 
grew like an obelisk from those depths, out 
above the line of earth, overlooking it, and 
reaching upward toward the skies. 

The timbers for the house had been cut and 
dressed in the forest. The house was set close 
to the ground, the foundation-walls reaching 
just above the greensward, and on them were 
placed the foot-square oak-sills, bearing at least 
two centuries of endurance in their fibre. At 
the corners square beams stood upright, these 
being held by the line of " girths " at the next 
story, and others again by the " plates " that 
marked the line of the garret-floor, from which 
the rafters would reach the ridge-pole. It was 
a " plank-house," as were all of that period, the 
sides being made entirely of wide planks, two 
inches thick, standing upright side by side. 

The raising of a house was a function at 
which all friends and neighbors " assisted " in 
two senses of the word, for the skill and strength 

02 



THE BUILDING OF THE HOUSE 

of many hands were required to raise and set 
in place the heavy beams and planks, and to 
drive the wooden pins " home " with prompt- 
ness and precision. The upright planks were 
usually but the length of one story, being fast- 
ened to sill and girth, and a second length to 
girth and plate, but this house of houses bore in 
its giant skeleton some planks that reached from 
ground to ridge-pole, thirty feet at least, and 
the muscle of young manhood, white and black, 
was put to the test. 

There was feasting, with merry-making, cider 
and " winkum" and Santa Cruz rum, that passed 
from hand to hand in tankard and pint-pot, with 
" raising-cake " and other appropriate viands 
in limitless supply. And there were women 
and men, old and young, to tender a hearty 
greeting and well-wishing. For it was known 
that the land was staked, and the deed would 
soon be drawn, and the wedding-day but waited 
for the finishing of the work so bravely begun. 

The house raised and planked was further fin- 
ished, first by filling all possible cracks between 
the planks with mortar and then clapboarded. 
Inside, laths, riven by hand from oak timber, 

63 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

were nailed to the planks with hand-made nails. 
The chimney grew taller and taller, with well- 
planned flues that promised comfort. Shell-lime 
for the mortar was brought up the steep road 
from Stratford, and plasterers left white walls. 
The joiner placed the fine panelled partitions, the 
mantel-pieces with fluted pilasters and curving 
shelves, pretty wooden cornices around all the 
best rooms, and flutings in accord on window 
and door casings. And there were built cup- 
boards in odd places, around the great chimney, 
and under the staircases; for, although closets 
for hanging up clothing had hardly been 
dreamed of, in shelves without number behind 
doors of glass, or panel, the house was trium- 
phant. 

The barns were built also, opening on the 
highway, and reaching out long, sloping roofs 
to cover a full harvest. The wells were dug, 
one, under cover of the house, an " up-and- 
down," the rope passing over a large wooden 
wheel, and bearing one bucket; the other near 
the barn, with the long " sweep " balanced at 
its earthly end by a large stone. 

The plan of the house varied little from most 

6 4 



THE BUILDING OF THE HOUSE 

of its style. The front-door faced the south, thus 
bringing a gable-end to the highway at the west, 
and it was set back from the road about twenty 
feet. The front-door swung on long hinges, 
and across its top were set five square panes of 
glass that let in the sunlight on the pretty wind- 
ing staircase. The " living-room," " one rod 
square," opened on the right from the short hall 
or entry, and between it and the chimney was 
the fine panelled partition reaching over the 
mantel-piece and across that side of the room. 
A door led into the long kitchen and another 
into the bed-room, the invariable apartment of 
master and mistress. 

From the left of the entry opened the other 
front room, the parlor, also one rod square, with 
plastered walls, fine mouldings and panellings, 
and with a door opening toward the road; from 
the room at the rear of this a similar panelled 
door led outward also. 

The long kitchen was always one of the most 
important rooms in the house. The opening 
of the fireplace was nine feet wide and five feet 
high, its sloping sides leaving room for a four- 
foot log at the back, and near their outer edge, 

65 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

a place for seats, the dejight of the children of 
the household. 

Beyond the bedroom the house reached out 
an L for the butt'ry and pantries; corresponding 
to it, at the other side of the rear of the house, 
was the " end kitchen." Between these two the 
large kitchen-door opened, leading over the flat 
doorstone to the garden that blossomed be- 
tween the house and barns. 

Wide and deep and high, the house finally 
stood complete. The window-panes reflected 
the light of the rising and setting sun; hinge and 
latch and lock were in place, and a bright red 
paint, with white for the window-sashes, and all 
the outer doors painted green, made it fitting 
to welcome a bride. 

A low fence of flat pickets divided the door- 
yard from the highway; in it two gates opened, 
one showing the way over the grass to the front 
door, the other, leading by a row of stones 
scarcely a foot wide, so narrow that a maiden's 
tread would barely escape the morning dew, to 
one of the green doors facing the road. 

The deed of gift was duly drawn, signed, and 
recorded: " Know all men by these presents, 

66 



THE BUILDING OF THE HOUSE 

that I . . . for the consideration of the love and 

affection I bear my son, ... a certain tract of 

land, with the house and buildings thereon . . . 

beginning at the highway near my present 

house, at a crotched walnut-tree with a stone 

laid in the crotch, running easterly ... to a 

group of chestnut spires, then south ... to a 

pepperidge tree, then west ... to a heap of 

stones by a poplar pole, then north ... to the 

crotched walnut-tree ... to him and his heirs 

forever. ,, 

67 



X 

THE HOUSEHOLD PLENISHING 

The furnishing was, in great measure, the 
part of the bride's parents, and constituted her 
dower. It was generous for the times, usually 
amounting with people of the best class to £200, 
and the record proves that blue-eyed Mary did 
not go to the great house empty handed.* 

Stratford furnished a good cabinet-maker, and, 
although fashion changed there less frequently 
than in the larger towns, where the influence of 
competition and direct communication with 
England produced more elaborate articles, yet 
the well-seasoned wild-cherry, carefully worked, 
made furnishings that remain a prize even in 
modern life. For London pewter and brass- 
ware, Holland linen, chintz for " curtins," and 
" costly " coverlids, as well as " Cheaney-Tea- 

* Appendix 297. 
68 



\ 



THE HOUSEHOLD PLENISHING 

Dishes," Mary's father sent by the renowned 
Captain Stephen Burroughs — accomplished 
mathematician and astronomer as well as navi- 
gator — who sailed with such regularity as wind 
and wave would permit, from a safe harbor in 
the Pequonnock River (now within the city of 
Bridgeport) for Boston, New York and other 
ports, and whose ability in exchanging colonial 
products into money, and investing it with good 
taste, was to be trusted. And he must carry 
also a certain amount of current coin to be con- 
verted into spoons and " tea-tongs," cream-pot 
and tankard, by Paul Revere's father, or some 
other silversmith. 

Captain Burroughs had a still more responsi- 
ble position to fill, as materials for the wedding- 
garments must come from the great seaport, 
and his commission was for blue satin damask 
for the bride's gown, with slippers in harmony, 
belt ribbons, white silk stockings, and long white 
silk gloves; and there must be store of velvet 
and poplin and gauze, of flowered calico from 
India, and russet and drugget and other woolen 
stuffs, besides lace, and a fan, and such acces- 
sories. Nor did Thaddeus fail to secure these 

69 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

important services for the bridegroom, whose 
suit required imported broadcloth, with buck- 
ram to line the skirts that they might stand out 
bravely, skeins of silk, and sticks of twist and 
hair for the button-holes, shalloon for lining, 
and four dozen silver buttons to shine like stars, 
gay brocade for a vest, white silk stockings, new 
knee and shoe buckles, and above all, the wed- 
ding-ring. 

The house-linen was largely home-made, 
" linen " always signifying that, while " hol- 
land " meant whatever was imported. Home- 
made table-cloths were of diaper patterns, 
two widths, a yard wide, sewed together. Hol- 
land furnished the better ones. Hollow iron 
and earthen ware were of colonial manufacture, 
and the local cooper and wood-worker supplied 
the necessary pails, tubs, churns, bowls, trays, 
and trenchers. 

There were unwritten laws regarding the 

furnishing, for custom, while assigning to the 

damsel the supply of beds and bedding, even to 

the curtains and valances, decreed to the lord 

of the manor the duty of procuring the bedsteads 

themselves, and Daniel likewise provided the tall 

70 



THE HOUSEHOLD PLENISHING 

clock that measured the hours from its corner 
of the living-room; a desk with drawers below 
the slanting top, and a well-concealed secret 
compartment; a " great chair " for his own use, 
and the " great Bible " with the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer bound in the front, and a small com- 
mentary at the back, while between the several 
divisions were blank pages to be covered, as 
years swept by, with records of births, marriages, 
and deaths. 

Like all maidens of the day, Mary had accumu- 
lated in her linen-chest a store of necessaries, 
having spun the flax and wool, and there was 
now added such quantity as completed a proper 
" setting-out." Her pride had vent also in the 
fine embroideries that colonial dames and maid- 
ens, like those of all ages, loved. Neck-hand- 
kerchiefs and ruffles were wrought with marvel- 
lous stitches, and a long band of fine white linen 
was worked with many soft-colored crewels, in a 
trailing pattern of vines, flowers, and butterflies, 
that would make the petticoat it was to border 
the envy of all beholders. And when the stitches 
were all set, and the wedding-day arrived, where 

could be found a braver bride and bridegroom? 

71 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

Daniel's claret-colored broadcloth coat, stiff of 
skirt, deep of cuff, and bright with two long 
rows of silver buttons, a long vest of green bro- 
cade, and the richness of velvet breeches; white 
silk stockings, large silver buckles on the low 
shoes, and powdered hair, braided and tied at the 
neck with a ribbon; while Mary in the blue 
damask gown that shaded to match her eyes, 
belted by a white ribbon strewn with peacock 
feathers woven in gold thread, and a narrower 
ribbon of the same pattern to band her fair locks, 
gold beads about her white throat, and on her 
pretty feet white silk stockings and high-heeled, 
sharply-pointed slippers of blue, brocaded with 
pink rosebuds — made a bride fit for the sun to 
shine on. 

And Thaddeus in a blue coat, heavy with the 
great silver buttons of the elder Daniel, did 
honor to the occasion, while Esther renewed her 
youth, as she took her place among the guests 
in the bravery of a new silk crape gown, with 
a lace-trimmed lawn kerchief, and the twist of 
her hair held by a silver " hair-peg." 

Wedding festivities were usually prolonged 

several days, that all one's acquaintances might 

72 



THE HOUSEHOLD PLENISHING 

be able to offer their good wishes, and the bride 
always remained at her own home, even if it 
were for months, until the bridegroom's house 
should be ready. 

No one felt the responsibility of the wedding 
preparations more than the faithful Jube, and 
his own importance was sensibly increased, as it 
proved to be his wedding-season also. Hav- 
ing observed " the weather-signs of love " in his 
master, and soon learning which of the young 
colored women would be assigned to Mary on 
her marriage, he began to look upon the dusky 
damsel as his rightful property, and made plans 
for his own marriage which were heartily 
seconded by master and mistress. So, on the 
day when the removal to the hill-top was to be 
made there was again a flurry of wedding- 
breezes, and, standing in the long kitchen of 
Mary's old home, the vows of Jube and 'Mandy 
were plighted. 

To take from the valley, to a height so much 
nearer the sky, the heavy furniture of the day, 
with no better conveyance than the two-wheeled 
ox-cart, required care and skill. Hay and straw 
supplied packing, but the roads were rough and 

73 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

rocky and the pitches steep and crooked. The 
transport was, however, finally accomplished, 
the great chests of drawers, pieces de resistance 
indeed, the tall clock, the high-backed chairs, the 
linen chests and the various tables were, with 
many a " Haw! " and " Gee! " at last in place. 

The last load was driven by Jube, with his 
bride perched among the tubs and pails and big 
brass kettles. Dorcas, with her own share of 
pride, welcomed them and kissed her daughter- 
in-law, while Esther watched from the south 
window of the best front room, looking over 
a bunch of the white Star of Bethlehem she 
had placed in a shining pewter pint-pot on the 
window-sill, for the first sign of her dear children 
as they came down the road. 

Thus the household gods were set in order 
and the fire lighted on the altar of a new hearth- 
stone, and faith and love poised their wings in 
benediction over the new life, the new home and 
family. 

The days drifted into weeks, and the coming 

and going of seasons found the new house a 

centre of happiness, of duties, of out-going life 

and power, and of interior comfort. By the time 

74 



THE HOUSEHOLD PLENISHING 

the year had swung around another voice was 
lifted under the roof, for a young Thaddeus 
opened his eyes upon them, and parents and 
grandparents rejoiced. Then a brother was 
born to him, little Benjamin, and Esther's yearn- 
ing heart leaped as she, the mother of but one 
child, said "A troop cometh! " And so it 
proved, for the years made a brave record, as 
these two were followed by Jeremiah, Esther, 
Gershom, William, Isaiah, Gloriana, and Vic- 
tory. 

Gloriana, born in 1771, received a name of 
note, for early in that year, down in Stratford vil- 
lage, a blacksmith's young daughter, the beauti- 
ful Gloriana Folsom, had been wooed and won 
by a travelling stranger, Mr. John Stirling, no 
less a personage than the son of a Scotch baro- 
net, on the death of whom, twenty years later, 
the son succeeding to the title, Gloriana be- 
came the Baroness Stirling.* This marriage 
caused a great commotion in the little sea of 
Stratford life, and the baby born on the hill-top 
was dowered with the name of the great beauty. 

The name of Victory had a meaning even be- 
* Orcutt's " History of Old Stratford." 
75 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

yond Gloriana's, or of those elder ones who bore 
ancestral honors, it being that of a cousin whose 
baptism is thus recorded: 

" On the 8th of September, 1760, Montreal, 
Mackinac, Detroit, and all other places within 
the government of Canada were surrendered to 
his ' Britannic Majesty,' and the long French 
war came to an end. On a Sunday morning 
soon after, as an infant was being carried to the 
meeting-house at Ripton for baptism, and to re- 
ceive a name that had been borne by one of the 
elder members of the family, a courier from the 
back settlements on the Hudson came riding up, 
waving a white flag, and shouting ' Victory! 
Victory! Victory! ' For a moment he drew rein 
at the steps of the meeting-house, while he told 
the pastor, the Rev. Jedediah Mills, and the peo- 
ple, the story of the great victory of the Eng- 
lish. To every one who heard it the tidings 
seemed as if from death to life. 

" When the courier had vanished, to carry the 
news to the next town, the congregation gath- 
ered in the meeting-house for worship and 
thanksgiving, but before these could proceed the 

child must be baptized. The aged minister, dip- 

76 



THE HOUSEHOLD PLENISHING 

ping his hand in the water, and placing it on the 
child's forehead, forgot apparently the family 
name it was to bear, and said, * Victory, I baptize 
thee.' " 

77 



XI 

SUPPLYING THE FAMILY NEEDS 

In these days of rapid transit and easy inter- 
communication, it is hard to realize the life lived 
on the upper hills, when intercourse with the 
world was obtained only by toiling over rough 
roads, and waiting for uncertain breezes to fill 
the sails of small sloops and schooners, that, 
from river and Sound landings made their way 
from one port to another. This isolation, how- 
ever, gave character to the life. Every house 
was not only its own. centre, but almost its 
own circumference. A man's acres must sup- 
ply fuel, food, and clothing, and his increase of 
revenue came from the sale of his surplus. The 
great body of the colonists were " planters," or 
agriculturists perforce; the few professional men, 
merchants, and seamen left a large residue 

73 



SUPPLYING THE FAMILY NEEDS 

whose energies England confined to the cultiva- 
tion of land, and the development of the wilder- 
ness. The needs of a family that imply 
handiwork were supplied by a method called 
" whipping-the-cat," craftsmen of various trades 
doing the required work from house to house. 
Every well-to-do householder had a shoemaker's 
bench and tools; the heavier leather was tanned 
and dressed on his own premises, and he bought, 
through Captain Burroughs or some one else, 
the finer grades. So the shoemaker came and 
made shoes for all the family, from master to 
slave; the tailor came and made the clothing, the 
cooper came to do the necessary " hooping " 
and repairs; and the ox-carts, ploughs and other 
farm implements were made and mended by 
those trained in the work, who, for the time 
being, were members of the family. 

Flax, grown and dressed through a long pro- 
cess of rotting, drying, crackling, swingling, and 
hetcheling, was finally ready for spinning, the 
tow also, a heavier fibre of the same product, 
being of use for coarse articles. Wool sheared 
from a man's well-washed sheep was carded at 
home, until carding-mills were established to 

79 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

prepare it for the trained hands that spun it. 
Nearly all large houses had a weaving-room, and 
a weaver came to sit before the loom, and turn 
into yards of cloth the threads already spun. 
Woolen cloths were sent to a fulling-mill to be 
fulled and dressed, but the linen was bleached at 
home, being well sprinkled, as it lay on the grass 
under the May sun, first with weak lye and then 
with water, several times daily. 

The accessories of a large house were many. 
In addition to the slaves' house were the smoke- 
house, where hams and sides of bacon, tongues 
and long strips of beef would gain sweetness, 
and be preserved for the winter's use; the long 
wood-piles and sheds; and the great caboose ket- 
tle, an immense iron pot set in a stone frame- 
work, with place for a fire beneath it, wherein 
certain foods for pigs and young cattle were 
prepared, soap was made, etc. And lye, so im- 
portant for the yearly bleaching and soap-mak- 
ing, was obtained by placing a barrel, whose 
bottom was well perforated by auger-holes, on a 
framework over a tub, the barrel being partly 
filled with ashes from the hearth, on which water 

was poured to trickle slowly through them. 

80 



SUPPLYING THE FAMILY NEEDS 

Everything was at hand and of use; nothing 
was wasted or destroyed. Idleness on the part 
of master or mistress, child or slave, was not 
countenanced; it was disreputable. And this 
life, with its limited horizon, its necessities, in- 
ventions and peculiar opportunities, bred a high 
degree of individualism, and — as extremes meet 
— the same sort of independence that is a mark 
of the cosmopolitan, self-consciousness being 
bred in the atmosphere of small towns, as self- 
satisfaction is in small cities. 

With this individualism, the principle of " live 
and let live " made part of the duty to one's 
neighbor, but simple and direct as the life was, 
it was also interdependent. Not, however, the 
complex modern net-work, when, no matter how 
earnest and straightforward the start, it is sure 
to be seized, knotted, and turned aside, now by 
the thin thread of a social fad, now by the 
heavier weight of a world-wide power; but each 
life was a thread in a cable, and when the call to 
arms came, it was that straightforward purpose, 
that sense of individual responsibility, though 
standing shoulder to shoulder, each one acting 
as if he were the whole, that gave the untrained 

81 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

militia a power far beyond that of men who fear 

to step until they have fitted their feet to their 

neighbors' footsteps. 

82 



XII 

THE DAILY LIFE 

In 1773 the child of a few days old was taken 

on the Sunday following his birth, as all his 

brothers and sisters had been, to the church at 

Ripton to be received " into the congregation of 

Christ's flock," and be signed " with the sign of 

the cross," by the Rev. Christopher Newton, 

and to be given his cousin's name, Victory. As 

Daniel presented the child at the altar, on which 

was placed a bright pewter basin to serve as a 

font, the group of children, from young Thad- 

deus, who had reached the mature age of fifteen 

years, down to little four-year-old Isaiah, made 

a brave showing, standing in the large family 

pew, hushed and awesome, even more than was 

their wont in the sacred edifice. And the lesson 

of the service was still further impressed on their 

young hearts, as at the hour of family prayer the 

83 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

thanksgiving from the office of the morning, 
" We yield Thee hearty thanks, most merciful 
Father, that it hath pleased Thee to regenerate 
these children with Thy Holy Spirit, and to re- 
ceive them for Thine own children by adoption 
and grace, and to incorporate tJiem into Thy 
Holy Church," was added to the customary 
supplications. 

The service of family worship was held im- 
mediately after supper. The family being as- 
sembled in the living-room — Daniel in his 
" great chair " before the fire at one side of the 
candle-stand, which stood opposite the centre 
of the fireplace, and Mary in her " Ottoman 
chair," a lower arm-chair, at the other side of 
the small table, with the youngest child in her 
lap, the others in their seats by the wide chim- 
ney, and the slaves standing in the long kitchen 
w T ith the communicating door open — the master 
of the house read a chapter from the Bible, and 
then, all standing, he read the prayers, or from 
a mind well stored with petitions from the beau- 
tiful liturgy, " made " intercession and thanks- 
giving befitting the day, and then all, white and 

black, repeated in unison the Lord's own prayer. 

8 4 



THE DAILY LIFE 

And often, before the younger children were 
tucked away in their trundle-beds, they were 
shown the illustrations in the big Bible, some- 
times calling the little darkies to share the pleas- 
ure, and were told the stories, ever old, ever 
new. 

" Grace before meat " was said standing, and 
those children too large to be held in a mother's 
lap at table, but not large enough to eat com- 
fortably from the ordinary chairs, stood during 
the meals. The table was set in the living-room, 
the large round pewter platters, the quart, two- 
quart and gallon basins, and the plates, making 
the dinner service, and as the pewter was kept 
shining like silver, the table bore an air of lux- 
ury not always realized now. Pewter pint-pots 
and smaller mugs and tumblers were the drink- 
ing vessels, salt-cellars were of the same brilliant 
metal, and a pepper-pot might be also, or 
possibly of delft. Porringers with pretty handles 
served the little children; spoons of pewter 
and silver were used. Wooden trenchers had 
their places; forks had come in fashion, as Ben 
Jonson said " to the sparing o' napkins," al- 
though the custom of holding a ham-bone, or a 

85 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

leg of mutton with a napkin while carving, serv- 
ing the meat from the point of the carver, was 
not entirely abandoned. Cider, or beer, brewed 
at home from malt from a convenient malt- 
house, were the usual beverages, with milk for 
the little children. Tea was still a luxury, and 
for state occasions, while coffee and chocolate, 
common at the seaports, rarely reached the hill 
country. 

Meats were boiled, pot-roasted, or baked in 
the great oven, and sometimes roasted before 
the fire, hanging from a hook on the under-side 
of the mantel-shelf, a pan being set on the hearth 
to catch the dripping; for viands requiring a 
short baking there was an iron " bake-pan " 
on long legs, that could be pushed into the fire, 
and under its cover, which was heaped with 
coals, biscuits or a loaf of cake baked quickly. 
The skillet, a small iron or brass kettle on long 
legs, with a stiff horizontal handle, served for 
such matters as would require a modern sauce- 
pan, its legs permitting it to stand among the 
burning coals, and by the fire stood a trivet, a 
three-legged brass or iron frame about a foot 

high — called sometimes out of New England a 

86 



THE DAILY LIFE 

" footman " — on which could be placed any- 
thing it was desired to keep hot. 

Flat-irons were heated over coals placed in 
an iron box set on a frame, or the iron itself 
held a movable compartment in which coals 
were put. A great iron kettle with its supply 
of hot water, hung ever by a pothook from the 
crane. 

Tin-ware was confined to a few pieces; fun- 
nels, colanders, canisters, and an occasional pan 
or cover. Milk was kept for short periods in 
bowls turned from the white bass-wood of the 
forests, but large earthen milk-pans served a 
better purpose. Butter was largely made in 
June, being laid down with a sprinkling of white 
sugar grated from the sugar-loaf, between the 
layers. Cheese was made in the hotter weather, 
when keeping a quantity of milk sweet without 
ice was impossible, artd an ice-house had not 
been imagined. For cheese, as for butter, there 
was a never-ending market demand. A fall 
product, in addition to grains, vegetables, and 
fruits, was cider, of which no less than thirty 
barrels must stand in the cellar, a portion also 

to be converted into cider-brandy, well named, 

87 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

locally, " winkum" as its first noticeable effect 
is on the eyes; (a barrel of cider making three 
gallons and the distiller taking one gallon as 
his " toll "). Four or six beeves and six or 
eight hogs must be killed, and turned into 
smoked beef and tongues, hams, bacon, salt- 
beef and salt-pork, souse and sausages. Pota- 
toes were still scarce, buckwheat had not yet 
much hold on American soil, but the fields, 
gardens and orchards offered large variety, 
and not only the coast towns, but the West 
Indies also made a sure market for whatever 
could be spared of the soil's products or of live- 
stock, and for this purpose Daniel built a large 
storehouse on a very fertile island in the centre 
of Pine Swamp, from which export might be 
made according to season. 

Broom-corn was practically unknown, and 
carpets, except in great houses by the sea- 
board, almost as much so. An occasional rug 
found place, but the floors were usually liber- 
ally sprinkled with white sea-sand, that on the 
" out-rooms " being swept lightly in fanciful pat- 
terns by brooms made of corn-husks, fine hem- 
lock twigs, sweet-fern branches, or splintered 

88 



THE DAILY LIFE 

white birch sticks, the making of which is said to 
have been learned from the Indian. The sand 
served to keep the floors clean, absorbing all 
soil from " Soels of Shouse," and was frequently 
swept up, sifted, and used again. 

The every-day dress was simple; short gowns 
and petticoats were of home-made woolens, and 
striped or " chekard " linens, " four and four " 
(threads to the check) or linsey-woolsey, two 
threads of linen to one of wool, this latter ma- 
terial making an apron not in danger of burning, 
when, in cooking, one bent over the open fire. 

The children's clothing was all of homespun 
flax or wool, and even the boys' caps were 
made in the house. Men's shirts were of linen 
and flannel, and for their outer garments, home- 
spun cloth fulled at the fulling-mill, and occa- 
sionally a little imported broadcloth, must be 
ready for the itinerant tailor. The slaves' cloth- 
ing must also be provided — tow-cloth and the 
rougher fabrics. Leather breeches served mas- 
ter and man for rough usage, but castor or 
beaver, with silver buttons, was finer wear for 
the gentleman. 

For knitting stockings of woolen or linen 

89 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

" yarns/' for mittens and tippets also, the wheels 
must spin steadily, and the threads for weav- 
ing, after being dyed, were made ready for the 
weaver by the twirling of the " quill-wheel," by 
which they were wound on short pieces of 
goose-quills, that would fit in the shuttle. 

The dyes were largely made from imported 
woods and indigo, but the native witch-hazel 
bark made gray, butternut bark and roots the 
yellow-brown butternut color, and the blue 
paper that covered the white sugar-loaves gave 
a fine purple. The " clouded " yarn was pro- 
duced by tying rags irregularly about the skeins, 
before putting them in the dye-pot, which pre- 
vented the dye reaching the white threads thus 
protected. 

All this varied labor was well superintended 
by Daniel and Mary, who, while directing it, 
were not obliged to put their hands to what was 
rough or mere routine work. The slaves gave 
a faithful and devoted service — children of na- 
ture always, but capable, under wise direction, of 
becoming responsible, efficient, and trustworthy. 
Jube, naturally at the head of the colored con- 
tingent, served and ruled to the satisfaction, of 

90 



THE DAILY LIFE 

both classes. His children grew up about him 
and 'Mandy, and the little hands early learned 
habits of industry and obedience. 

'Mandy, having mastered the secrets of New 
England cookery, served from the great fire- 
place and from the oven, first the bag pudding 
of Indian meal, boiled for several hours till it 
gained a ruddy color; this led the mid-day din- 
ner; then the meats, boiled or baked, spare-rib, 
turkey, goose, or gosling, young pig or leg of 
mutton, or the boiled salt-beef, with vegetables, 
to be followed by pies, always of two kinds, or 
pudding, an Indian pudding with dried apples 
or suet in it, or batter-pudding thick with any 
of the berries of the season, served with a sauce 
made of milk, butter, and molasses. And who 
could make as good apple-dumplings, or fritters, 
to be eaten with cider and molasses? Pies 
served for breakfast were unknown, though gin- 
ger-bread or doughnuts might have a place at 
that meal. And sweet apples baked in the 
deep oven, being put in after everything else 
was cooked, and allowed to remain overnight, 
gained a rare flavor. 

The function in cookery was always that of the 

91 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

great oven. When the house was built, bricks 
had not come into use in this part of the Colony, 
and, like the chimney, the oven was made of 
stone. Its iron door was about three feet from 
the floor, the open space underneath being 
a receptacle for big kettles, or sometimes 
for the oven-wood, cut three feet long, which 
must be perfectly dry before using. 'Mandy 
allowed no one but herself to superintend 
the important office of filling the oven with 
wood, and lighting it by a shovelful of coals 
from the hearth. When the wood had burned 
the coals were skilfully taken out with the long- 
handled " peel " * and then with a wet broom 
made of corn-husks the stones were swept clean. 
She put the loaves of bread on the stones, by 
means of a flat wooden shovel, and the children, 
ever peeping in anticipatory delight, held their 
breath as she brought from the butt'ry the pies 
that had been waiting behind that closed door, 
for 'Mandy's " baking " began often before cock- 
crow. A steady and skilful hand was needed 
to place all properly, that each should have the 

* French pelle. 
92 



THE DAILY LIFE 

desired amount of heat. The pie-plates were of 
brown earthen-ware, rounding and somewhat 
unsteady of base, and to place one full of liquid 
pumpkin far in the hot recess was well-nigh 
impossible. A tin dipper had not cheered a 
housewife's eye, and though a gourd might be 
used for dipping water, it could not serve all 
purposes. This difficulty was met by wooden 
spoons with handles half a yard long, and a 
squarish-shaped bowl holding nearly half a pint, 
that, supplemented by Tandy's long reach, could 
safely fill to the brim the half-filled pie-plates. 
Now and again a pan of ginger-bread sent out 
a delicious odor from the oven when the watch- 
ful goddess took observations. Then there were 
times in the fruit seasons when, the other cook- 
ing being finished, with an air of mystery she 
placed in the dark oven a stone-pot, well cov- 
ered, holding, as she alone knew, plums, goose- 
berries, or other fruits and their modicum of loaf 
sugar, leaving it in place till the following day, 
and repeating the process after three bakings, 
for thus she sometimes made sweetmeats. 

After the bread was baked, the oven was often 
reheated for the baking of meats, or, if the 

93 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

never-lacking cookies and seed-cakes were to 
have their turn, or anything requiring a quick 
heat for a short time, a good handful of pine 
wood set alight in the middle of the oven would 
serve both cook and cookies. 

" Pots " and " kettles " were distinct, the 
former with bulging sides and a cover, the latter 
always open and with sloping sides. A great 
brass " wash-kettle " aided the laundry-work; a 
" dish-kettle " was hung over the fire immediate- 
ly after a meal, in which the various pieces of 
pewter were placed and left, until, steaming hot, 
it was swung from the crane, when the pewter 
was readily given its silver shining. 

The iron frying-pan would seem familiar in 
a modern kitchen, save for the handle two or 
three feet long, that bespeaks the open fire; 
but the sausage-baker standing upright before 
the blazing coals, with savory sausages cooking 
on its bent wires, is a vision passed from the 
eyes of men. 

94 



XIII 

A JOURNEY TO NEW HAVEN 

The shore line of speech is as ever-changing 
as that of continents, and it has been declared 
that no man could say with surety how his 
grandfather spoke in his youth. For, while the 
rocky ledges long resist the waves of time, there 
are sandy beaches that shift perpetually, leaving 
occasional isolated landmarks, and the winds 
of custom blowing as they list, work strange 
freaks with the lighter matters on different 
strands. The " broken-spoken " Irishman still 
retains an old value in the combination of the 
vowel i and that of y with o, saying bye for boy 
and boy for by; but one hundred and fifty years 
ago, and for long after, not only was point fre- 
quently pronounced pint, but pint, point. Stars 
served for stairs, and stairs for stars, while the 
combination ea varied from calling the surname 

95 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

Pearce Parss (it became Puree in Massachu- 
setts) to Beard as Baird, giving weight to the 
interpretation of Falstaff's " If reasons were as 
plenty as blackberries " being then pronounced 
raisins, and of far more value than modern 
speech conveys. Chair became cheer, pears were 
peers, etc., the / was pronounced in could, would, 
and should, and not until Noah Webster pub- 
lished his spelling-book were the terminations 
Hon, tial, etc., given for pronunciation in one 
syllable. 

The district-school, at a turning of roads 
before Thaddeus's house, was, like all built dur- 
ing the reign of open fires, a small one-story 
cellarless structure with a large chimney in the 
middle of one end, making part of the outside 
wall, and leaving a deep recess on each side of 
it in the building. These " jogs " were parti- 
tioned off to serve as the " boys' entry " and the 
" girls' entry," where their wrappings were 
hung. The only outer door led into the boys' 
entry, through which the girls must pass to 
reach the wooden pegs set apart for their sun- 
bonnets, hoods, and long red cloaks. 

The teacher's desk was directly before the 

96 



A JOURNEY TO NEW HAVEN 

crackling, blazing fire, the scholars sitting on 
long benches in the middle of the room, while 
against the wall a slanting shelf was nailed, be- 
fore which they stood and learned to write. 
Very thick, rough slates and large, heavy pencils, 
just coming into use in the seaport schools, 
were yet unknown in the hill-districts. Dil- 
worth's Spelling-book, printed in Glasgow, 
served as the foundation-stone of instruction; 
the Bible was, save the New England Primer, 
the only reading-book, until Noah Webster pub- 
lished his book of Selections in 1789. Dil- 
worth's Arithmetic was the standard. But few 
of the children owned books, blackboards had 
not been thought of, and the teacher went from 
one to another, and " set sums " for them to 
puzzle over — to " find the decimal of 17s. 9d. 
2 far. "! There were recitations in concert, of the 
multiplication-table, and those of weights and 
measures, and an ear attuned to the old key can 
hear the swaying voices: 

4 gills make one pint 
2 pints " " quart 

2 quarts " " pottle 
2 pottles " " gallon 
97 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 
4 pecks make one bushel 



2 bushels 


< i 


t • 


strike 


2 strikes 


<< 


< « 


coom 


2 cooms 


« i 


( < 


quarter 


4 quarters 


« < 


<< 


chaldron 


5 quarters 


« < 


< < 


wey 


2 weys 


<< 


(« 


last 


7 lbs. make 


one 


clove 


2 cloves 


< t 


<< 


stone 


2 stones 


< < 


< < 


tod 


6£ tods 


M 


< < 


wey 


2 weys 


< ( 


f t 


sack 


12 sacks 


t « 


< c 


load 



and io cowhides were reckoned as one dicker. 
Exercises in rhyme were given: 

" A gentleman a chaise did buy, 

A horse and harness too; 
They cost the sum of threescore pounds, 

Upon my word, 'tis true. 
The harness came to half the horse, 

The horse twice of the chaise, 
And if you find the price of them, 

Take them and go your ways." 

There were also " pleasant and diverting ques- 
tions;" such as the old riddle "As I was going 
to St. Ives." 

The teacher practised also one of the minor 
arts, making with his pen-knife, pens from the 
convenient goose-quill, for the row of children 

who tried his patience with the continual de- 

9 8 



A JOURNEY TO NEW HAVEN 

mand, " Please mend my pen," as they stood 
at the long desk, toiling from pot-hooks to the 
elaborate capitals in which they delighted. Ink 
was made from ink-powders or sticks dissolved 
in vinegar, or more primitively from soot and 
vinegar. The ink-bottles were of leather, and 
the writing-books made of large sheets of paper 
stitched together. 

The winter term lasted from October to April, 
it was especially the boys' term, and a man was 
employed as teacher; but in the summer term a 
woman reigned, it being intended for girls and 
smaller boys, all of whom learned to make patch- 
work, knit, and work samplers. On Saturday 
school was kept but half a day, the afternoon 
being set apart for " preparation for the Sab- 
bath," and the morning lessons included the 
Shorter Catechism and the Catechism from the 
Prayer-book, according to the theology of the 
pupils. 

An obeisance to the teacher was always made 
on leaving school, and recess sent out, as ever, a 
lot of boys and girls eager for the games dear 
to young hearts; and when the snow lay deep 
enough the home-made sleds went flying down 

99 

Lore. 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

the slopes, a girl in front well wrapped in her 
bright red cloak, with a cavalier steersman be- 
hind her. " Twelve Men Morris," an old game 
played with " men " on a marked board, was 
often laid out on the snow, the active boys 
" moving " themselves. 

" Manners " were strictly insisted on, and a 
passing stranger received a salutation by a 
" curtsey " from every child in petticoats, while 
the boys stood respectfully, cap in hand. 

In this little school-house the nine children of 
Daniel and Mary received their education. The 
curriculum was very limited, as grammar and 
geography were not taught until near the end of 
the century, and Mrs. John Adams certifies 
that at this period, " female education in the 
best families in Boston goes no farther than 
writing and arithmetic, except in some in- 
stances music and dancing. It is fashionable to 
ridicule female learning." But in spite of this 
far-reaching sentiment the desire for education 
was strong, and both girls and boys made the 
most of their opportunities. The young colored 
children were also sent to school, as by law they 
must, at least, be taught to read. 

100 



A JOURNEY TO NEW HAVEN 

Boarding-schools were unknown, and youth 
were prepared for college by the local or other 
clerics. Following a custom obtaining among 
the agriculturists who had several sons, Thad- 
deus, the eldest son, was to inherit his grand- 
father's house, and the second son, by virtue of 
the order of his birth, was " brought up to col- 
lege." So Benjamin, when twelve years old, 
was in a state of suppressed excitement one 
morning, over his anticipated first journey to 
New Haven; not only must the Latin grammar 
be purchased, but even an outside knowledge of 
the college buildings would lend, it was thought, 
a power in fixing his purpose. The distance 
was only about fifteen miles, but the road lying 
across the Housatonic, through another town 
and county, was out of the usual line of travel 
for the younger members, whose interest centred 
in Ripton and its dependencies and the mater- 
nal ties in old Stratford. On this bright morn- 
ing in early May the whole household rose 
very early to see the start. Daniel in a blue 
camlet coat and " lappet " vest, his shirt ruffles 
well crimped, and the ends of his tied neckcloth 
flowing, claret-colored breeches, mixed gray 

IOI 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

stockings, and low shoes, a " knapt " hat (beaver 
with long fur), with Benjamin in a new butter- 
nut-colored suit, waited as Jube led the mare 
from the big barn, a well-quilted blanket-pad 
being fastened to the back of the saddle. The 
saddle-bags, collapsed now, but to show large 
proportions later, were thrown over the saddle, 
and Daniel mounted with the boy behind him 
astride the pad, his blue-stockinged legs hug- 
ging the mare, and a strap fastened across the 
back of the saddle serving for support if needed. 
The farewells were said amid repeated cautions 
lest this or that errand be forgotten, and the 
start was made ere the sun, climbing toward the 
top of the horizon hills, had sent a ray into the 
valleys. 

The road lay up and down over the hill-crests, 
until it reached the winding descent following 
Leavenworth's brook down the forest-covered 
steep, now half lighted by the rising sun. The 
quiet early hours were broken only by the twit- 
ter of birds and the rush of the full spring waters. 
The river was reached where the fine old Leav- 
enworth houses and a half-dozen others stood 

on the level plain under the protecting hills. 

1 02 



A JOURNEY TO NEW HAVEN 

Leavenworth's ship-yard was near, and the 
bridge built by those enterprising men was, dur- 
ing a long period of years, the only one for miles 
across the " Great River." It was too early for 
many greetings, but a rush of pleasure filled the 
boy's heart as he heard the mare's hoofs strike 
the boards, and saw the full, swiftly flowing 
stream passing below. The crossing showed 
the opposite bank in the beauty of spring, with 
the glowing tints of the young leaves of maples, 
oaks, and birches, and the dog-woods' level lay- 
ers of blossoms thrust between them. The toll 
paid, they followed a winding up-hill road, and 
as they came to Squire Tomlinson's corner at 
Derby Neck, Daniel reined in for a moment with 
the words, " There's Patience, Ben," and on the 
clear, early air came a girl's sweet voice singing 
the first verse of Baxter's hymn: 

" Lord, it belongs not to my care 
Whether I die or live; 
To love and serve Thee is my share, 

And this Thy grace must give. 
If life be long, I will be glad 

That I may long obey; 
If short, yet why should I be sad 
To soar to endless day?" 
103 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

To hear this was one of Benjamin's great 
hopes, as it was known that Patience Moss had 
a way of her own for timing her cooking. Lack- 
ing a clock, as did many another, the varying 
tastes of her household in the cooking of eggs 
had been difficult to meet until she solved the 
problem by her hymn-book. So on a clear spring 
or summer morning, when the doors and win- 
dows were open, all the neighboring dames and 
damsels busy over their own breakfast prepara- 
tions, would hear borne on the still air the maid- 
en's voice, lifted for the first line of the hymn, 
and they with one accord would say, " There go 
Father's and Bill's eggs; " and the verse being 
finished, there came an instant's pause in the 
singing which the appreciative listeners would 
fill with, " There go Jemima's and Sally's eggs; " 
and then the second verse would come ringing 
across the street, or stealing over the meadow. 
At its ending the neighbors would again take 
up the refrain, " There go the old woman's and 
Ike's eggs;" and then the voice would rise again, 
and finish the hymn of six verses. 

Daniel guided the mare slowly down the hill 

and across the brook, the maid's voice growing 

104 



A JOURNEY TO NEW HAVEN 

clearer and clearer as they neared the Moss 
homestead, and, through the open door of the 
end kitchen, the boy had a glimpse of the slen- 
der minstrel. It seemed a good omen for his 
whole day. And then the way led on, twisting 
between the hills, past the fine Yale mansion and 
others large and small, till it again descended 
to a river's brink and the rushing Naugatuck 
was crossed, now in the broad sunlight, and 
following the curving street at Up-town Derby, 
the long hills must be climbed, down which in 
a few years a French army would wend its way, 
serving in the cause of freedom. 

Emerson's declaration — " Nature has no re- 
spect for haste " — is verified by the various races 
of men who live close to the great mother and 
are in sympathy with her. It is the result of 
man's invention and handiwork that life is filled 
with hurry and impatience; but the old journey- 
ings, always considerate of the beast of burden, 
the only motive power, and trained to grasp 
every phase of earth and air and sky, gained such 
pleasure from the ever-changing course, that 
even an eager anticipation chafed not at the 

slow progress. The road led on up and down 

105 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

hills, and when, nearing New Haven, the father 
showed the boy West Rock's outline, and told 
again the story of the Judge's Cave, nothing less 
than the important work on hand could have 
satisfied the young legs to keep their place 
astride the mare, rather than to be climbing the 
rocky precipice for personal investigation. 

But the town of New Haven, with its green, 
its college, its churches and shops, had been too 
long a dream of the imagination to make any- 
thing else of great importance, and the easy 
pacing through the streets, replete with town- 
life, made his heart beat fast, as, sitting behind 
his tall father, it seemed to the boy like an end- 
less " Centre." 

The important work, though dinner at a tav- 
ern was not unworthy to be counted, was to see 
the college, to make the well-planned pur- 
chases, and to seek certain kindred in their 
homes and business haunts. The young legs 
were as tireless as the father's long ones, and 
an open mind is a wide receptacle. The 
churches on the green, and the long South Mid- 
dle and other college buildings, filled him with 

awe, not wearing away when, seeking a young 

1 06 



A JOURNEY TO NEW HAVEN 

kinsman among the students, the stripling was 
led through the buildings, until, in the friend's 
own apartments, the ordinary necessaries of life 
gave him a sense of being at home. 

Benedict Arnold's store was the next goal, 
and the hanging sign decorated with pestle and 
mortar (now in the rooms of the New Haven 
Colony Historical Society) was readily found. A 
handbill, 5 by 16 inches, issued by this enterpris- 
ing chemist and merchant, had found its way to 
Upper White Hills, and, being eagerly conned, 
had naturally suggested purchases. For, in addi- 
tion to " A very large assortment of Drugs and 
Chymical Preparations," it mentioned " God- 
frey's Cordial, Daffy's Elixir, Eau de Luce Pills, 
Essence Drops, Rose-Water, Cold Cream, La- 
dies' Court Plaister, Spaw and pirmont waters, 
Paper Hangings for rooms." A long list of 
books, among which were " Hilary on the 
Small-Pox," " Sherlock on Providence," " Gay's 
Fables," " Hervey's Meditations," "Paradise 
Lost," " Dryden " and other standard poets and 
essayists, " Every Man his own Lawyer," 
"The Polite Lady," "A large collection of 

Novels and Plays," " TEA, Rum, Sugar, Fine 

107 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

Durham Flour, Mustard, Painters' Colors, A 
very few neat watches, Buttons and buckles, 
Mezzotint Pictures and Many other articles very 
cheap for cash and short credit." 

The Latin Grammar being- secured and the 
various purchases paid for in colonial paper 
money from Daniel's morocco pocket-book and 
in jingling coin from his breeches pocket, there 
were houses to enter that seemed full of mystery 
and grandeur to a boy of Benjamin's limited 
experience, and the wharves and shipping made 
him wonder if that life with its charm of rope 
and pulley, of motion and adventure, would not 
after all be more enjoyable than the college. 

But, home reached again, and the tale of the 
day unfolded with that deliberation that spins out 
the pleasure, there was much expression of pride 
in the knowledge gained of the college-buildings, 
as he led the listening brothers and sister 
through them, and already saw himself a student 
within their walls. 

The opening of the saddle-bags was a func- 
tion by itself. Not till after the evening meal 
and the usual prayers were over, could they be 
opened. Impatient but obedient fingers would 

108 



A JOURNEY TO NEW HAVEN 

not touch them; restraint was ever a valuable les- 
son. But their depths were finally reached and 
the various purchases approved. One and six- 
pence worth of fresh cloves (to be steeped in two 
quarts of boiling water — this added to two quarts 
of rum and sweetened with loaf-sugar made 
clove-water). One ounce of opium (which put 
in three gills of rum made laudanum). Twelve 
yards of India taffety for a gown for the mother 
and some russet for a new petticoat; "The 
Looking-Glass, short stories with a moral," for 
little Esther; a few oranges were put aside to 
be carefully divided and joyfully eaten to-mor- 
row, the peel to be saved for bitters and mince- 
pies; the Latin Grammar was wondered over; 
the fine blue marking-thread pronounced right, 
as was also the linen cambric for ruffles and lawn 
for kerchiefs. For the grandmother there was 
Dutch lace for a new cap-border, and the elder 
Thaddeus turned with pleasure the leaves of 
" The History of Religion in England." Daniel 
himself had a new copy of the Colonial Laws, 
and that good book whose authorship yet re- 
mains unknown, " The Whole Duty of Man." 

Tea, usually bought by the quarter of a pound, 

109 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

could not be neglected when an opportunity of- 
fered for procuring a new variety; in fact, the 
great and widely known store of Elisha Mills, in 
Ripton, might supply most of these matters but 
there is ever a charm in new ventures. 

No one was neglected, for there were bright 
buttons for the small boys' jackets, and essence 
drops to make the eyes of Jube's little flock 
shine, and withal there was the delightful one- 
ness in pleasure that abides with a united family. 

no 



XIV 
THE MOTHER'S DUTIES 

In every age the woman who bears efficiently 
the responsibilities of wife and mother, house- 
keeper and hostess, needs a keen eye, a sure 
hand, and a steady heart. Although in those far- 
off days the whirligig of time did not seem to 
move with the present fin de siecle rapidity, yet 
the treadle must ever be kept in motion, and all 
ladies, even those of fashion and distinction, di- 
rected their household affairs. 

In a large family there was always a baby to 

be cuddled, young children to be guided and 

petted, while sympathy and counsel were needed 

by those growing toward man's degree. Thus 

the shy Stratford maiden became the responsible 

matron, guiding her growing household with 

love and wisdom, while her energetic nature, 

and the habit of the day, left her hands sel- 

iii 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

dom idle. A touch less skilful could not spin 
two threads, one with each hand, while a foot 
kept the treadle of the flax-wheel moving and a 
baby slept on her lap. There was soft wool for 
endless knitting, fine ruffles and kerchiefs to hem 
and babies' caps and other adornments to em- 
broider, and the innumerable stitches to which 
a mother must ever put her hand. 

'Mandy proved capable in performing the 
routine work, and as numbers increased a young 
helper, Moll, was procured, whom she guided 
with discretion, as well as the group of little 
Brownies that grew up about Jube and herself, 
who were impressed into service as soon as the 
young hands and feet could be trusted. The 
standard of neatness was high — pewter must rival 
silver in its brilliance, the wooden-ware, of which 
there was large store, must be like the driven 
snow — and an air of purity seemed to fill the 
house, its whitewashed walls cheered by the glow 
of the great fires and by the sunbeams that 
found free entrance through the shutterless win- 
dows. 

The house was, virtually, always open. Never 
was a bolt drawn on a door nor a bar placed 

112 



THE MOTHER'S DUTIES 

against its welcome. Guests, be they kindred, 
friend, or stranger, were sure of a greeting that 
warmed the heart and of a courtesy that knew no 
limit. " Manners " were a part of the life of all 
classes, but the finer grade, the courtesy that 
makes a guest a king, that counts nothing too 
precious to offer of self or substance, that veils 
a dislike, and makes all equally at home within 
the castle, was the governing power in hospi- 
tality, and its source reached back through 
generations of gentlefolk, to the high class of 
gentry, who made a large part of some of the 
colonial companies. 

Guests came at all hours and at all seasons, 
expected and unexpected, in the days when pos- 
tal service was not, and when there was small 
chance of finding an empty house. The first 
duty to a guest was to offer refreshment, and 
the panelled door of the cupboard by the fire- 
place in the living-room opened to show a large 
assortment, from which choice was made ac- 
cording to the guest's station. Often as Mary 
chanced to look out of her window and rec- 
ognized riders emerging from the wooded road, 
she would hasten to the front room, where, on 

"3 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

the shelves behind a glass door, were the " foot- 
glasses " and the choice bits of delft that even 
'Mandy's hand must not touch. If a lady, or 
Parson Newton, were approaching, the most 
delicate viands would be offered, a glass of wine 
or the king of all the liquors, Santa Cruz rum, 
and that fruit-cake that 'Mandy hid in the depths 
of a stone-pot and whose retreat was known only 
to herself, must be forthcoming. If the guest 
were of less distinction, New England rum was 
supposed better to suit his taste, or for a woman 
a glass of home-made cordial, with doughnuts, 
would be acceptable; or cider might be offered, 
and in cold weather flip, which was beer, rum, 
and sugar made hissing-hot by being stirred with 
the hot flip-iron, that, hanging near the kitchen 
chimney, was always ready to be thrust into the 
coals. 

A guest seen advancing was met at the door 
with, " You are welcome." The first civilities 
over and refreshments duly considered, eti- 
quette asked for a deliverance of his budget, 
with, " What is the state of health in your vi- 
cinity? " 

Guests were far from infrequent, from Thad- 

114 



THE MOTHER'S DUTIES 

deus and Esther and the parents in Stratford vil- 
lage, to the kindred of varying degrees and 
friends whose homes lay here and there within 
the wide bounds of the old town, and of neigh- 
boring towns also. A great house with no limit 
to its heart, where there was no tavern within 
several miles, was sure to be a refuge. So the 
world drifted in and out of the door, bringing 
its tidings from various quarters, and carrying 
away the cheer that long abides with the re- 
cipient. 

When Mary first came to her new home, 
Esther, following the usual etiquette, invited to 
her own house all the neighboring friends, to 
introduce to them her daughter-in-law. For this 
ceremony both maid and mistress stirred them- 
selves unusually; there was no stint in the dole 
cf fruit and spice, of cream and butter, of eggs 
and white sugar, that made the rich brown loaves 
Dorcas drew out of the oven, and there was fine 
Madeira in a flowered glass bottle, of which 
choice guests might sip, with clove-water, cor- 
dials, and other beverages for varying tastes. 

This was an occasion for the wearing of wed- 
ding finery, and the women who came on pillions 

"5 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

had their gowns carefully pinned up for the ride, 
to be shaken down over finely-quilted petticoats. 
Laying aside their velvet or cloth pugs (riding- 
cloaks with hoods), they showed caps of fine 
muslin embroidered with many lace stitches, and 
the ruffles lace-edged, kerchiefs of lawn and 
aprons of persian (silk); and the men in coats 
of blue and green, brown and claret, long waist- 
coats of every hue, and breeches of velvet 
or cloth brightened with silver buttons and 
buckles. By inheritance they had the education 
and civilization their forefathers had brought 
with them to a new country; life was full of con- 
ventionalities, and the fabrics of France, the 
speech of England, and a ceremonious courtesy 
which was a reflection of that in kings' houses, 
seemed removed far more than a quarter of a 
century from the wilderness and the savage. 

116 



XV 

MAKING NEW FRIENDS 

Mary herself must also entertain the neigh- 
borhood, and the new friends flitted in and out 
at her " tea-drinkings " admiring the little blue- 
eyed woman and her tall husband, whose pride 
and satisfaction could be read in spite of his 
quiet demeanor. Tea was a treat, costing several 
dollars a pound, but it was not used with mod- 
ern lavishness, as, well boiled, a little served a 
large purpose, and the delicate blue and white 
china " tea-dishes," decorated with Chinese tem- 
ples and landscapes, were of the tiniest. On 
these state occasions the best front room was 
open, and the guests might almost hesitate to set 
even a slippered foot on the sanded floor, lest 
they mar the pattern so deftly marked on it. The 
round tea-table would seem small to the modern 

hostess for the accommodation of her guests, 

117 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

but the fashion of that day was, if the guests were 
many, to sit about the room, everything being 
passed to them; if few, they sat near, not at, the 
table, near enough to reach it, that plate or cup 
and saucer might be placed upon it. 

The table was laid with the finest table-cloth, 
holland, of course, and there were napkins for 
the ladies to spread on their laps. It was cus- 
tomary for each guest to bring her own cup and 
saucer and tea-spoon; so, although Mary's store 
would suffice, part of her treasures might be left 
behind the glass door of the cupboard. Tea was 
served from the "tortoise-shell" tea-pot; in a 
sugar-bowl of the same ware the broken loaf- 
sugar lay like snow against the dark-red glaze 
of its lining, and on the sugar the silver " tea- 
tongs " were laid with pride, while the little sil- 
ver cream-pot, with Mary's initials in square 
typographical letters, was the prize of the table. 
Sweetmeats were in shining pewter basins, and 
served on small pewter plates which were almost 
as brilliant as mirrors. 

Queen Esther, too, was proud of the young 
hostess who served her guests so gracefully, and 
if 'Mandy dared to listen, when her biscuits and 

118 



MAKING NEW FRIENDS 

fruit-cake, passing from hand to hand on plates 
from far Cathay, were praised, no one could 
blame her! 

The tea-cups were without handles and the 
spoons, which were very small, served that 
purpose. A spoon left in the cup and against 
its edge, made a rest for the forefinger placed 
in front of it; while the other fingers, back of 
it, held the cup itself. And there was a strict 
etiquette regarding the spoon; left in the 
empty cup, it signified that one did not desire 
the cup refilled, but laying it in the saucer meant 
that more tea would be acceptable. An atten- 
tive hostess did not need to use her eyes to ascer- 
tain her guests' wishes. The click alone of the 
spoon on cup or saucer told their pleasure to her 
discriminating ear. 

The guests themselves, genteel and agreeable, 
chatted, admired, and delighted in it all, talking 
of this and that, of parson and sermon, of house 
and children, of gossip and fashion, with that 
good humor, racy wit, and sprightly manner for 
which the women of New England were re- 
nowned. 

Mary's nature was very social and she soon 

119 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

made friends among these women of the hills, 
but there were two distinguished from the first 
above all others. Daniel's cousin, the little 
Charity who used to sit by her grandmother in 
church, having grown tall and buxom, had mar- 
ried a man of valor, and their house on the east- 
ern rise of Spindle-Tree Hill was on the road to 
Ripton. Beach, Charity's husband, though com- 
ing from Stratford village, was already a large 
land-holder on the hills, and at the time of 
Mary's marriage three children had been taken 
to the meeting-house for baptism, for Charity, 
having married one of the meeting-folk, must go 
with her husband. To Mary this cousin, em- 
barked on the sea of matrimony somewhat in ad- 
vance of herself, proved a wise counsellor, and 
there were many pleasant journeys homeward on 
Sundays, the men, Beach and Daniel, in advance, 
and the women on their own horses, ambling 
side by side, and talking their woman's talk. 

But the new friend that really marked an era 
in Mary's life was Hepzibah, whose date of mar- 
riage tallied very nearly with her own. She was 
of Huguenot descent, her father, born in Strat- 
ford, and marrying there in 1725, had, about 

120 



MAKING NEW FRIENDS 

the time Thaddeus married, removed from 
his pleasant home " by the water-side " in 
the village to one of Stratford's wilderness re- 
gions, called Moose Hill, where Indians were the 
nearest neighbors. Hepzibah was only then 
learning to take her first little steps, and the 
home was so remote that it had never been pos- 
sible for her to go to school but for one short 
term of three months. Her grandmother, how- 
ever, taught her at home, and her own keen in- 
terest, determination, and ability enabled her 
not only to gain much knowledge from books, 
but also to guide a pen wittingly. 

Moose Hill became part of another " Centre," 
called New Stratford, and within the district's 
limits was Barn Hill, on the southern side of 
which was set the home of Hepzibah on her mar- 
riage. This also was a fine house, not as large 
as that of Daniel, but built much on the same 
plan and about two miles distant. Hepzibah was 
a woman of " parts," tall, erect, and fair, not in- 
heriting from her father physically, but proving 
mentally the French blood. Her great-grand- 
parents being Walloons, the type was not far 
to seek. Being also of Puritan stock, and 

121 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

education, the temperament was restrained, dig- 
nified, and, like most of the women, she had ever 
a living interest in serious matters. But there 
was a love of art, and of beauty, an ingenuity and 
desire for expression, that marked her as unlike 
most of her contemporaries. The possibilities 
of even a small colonial city were beyond her 
grasp, but by her brains and hands she realized 
some of her longings. Drawing her own de- 
signs and with colors made from various dyes 
and plants she painted her window-shades, 
which in those days were always of paper. And 
with a supply of crewels, she made rugs from the 
common tow-cloth, using it as a canvas: making 
the pattern as she worked, flowers and vines 
grew under her fingers, and the background 
was filled with black stitches. She was fond of 
her garden, especially a large bed of pinks on 
which the sunshine lay all day, and she had great 
pride in variegating their shades by braiding to- 
gether the roots of different varieties. Happy 
was the child for whom a large handful was 
gathered, and carefully strung with a thread 
through the long green calyxes to be wound 
into a " posy." 

122 



MAKING NEW FRIENDS 

To verse also she set her hand, and a remark- 
able memory helped her to make the limited 
number of books that came within her reach a 
part of herself. Her husband, bearing the name 
of Milton, because of his father's admiration for 
" Paradise Lost," was a man of rare physical 
beauty, and with such admiration for her supe- 
rior intellectual power as to be willing to shine 
with less brilliance. 

So the friendship began which was to last 
through many years and the two young mar- 
ried women, both starting on the new life, 
found that in itself a bond, while the attraction 

of opposites wrought its endless charm. 

123 



XVI 
FIRE AND LIGHT 

In the days when friction-matches were an un- 
known quantity — and those days lasted until 
about 1830 — "a light " meant far more than at 
the present time. The element of fire, man's 
greatest friend, was, during the colder weather, 
his greatest fear. A house was never left alone 
with a fire burning. Under any circumstances 
there would be little to help the subduing of an 
unruly flame with water only in the depths of a 
well or, possibly, a few gallons in a hogshead at 
the corner of the house. 

In these homes of the past the fires in the 

kitchen and living-rooms did not go out from 

the first cool days of the fall until the summer 

sun made them largely unnecessary. In winter 

there was always an immense back-log, twelve 

to eighteen inches in diameter, often drawn to 

124 



FIRE AND LIGHT 

the hearthstone by a horse that Jube drove 
right into the kitchen. Against this log the 
smaller and lighter wood was piled, a green 
" fore-stick " keeping guard lest any turn truant. 
To light the fires there was kept a supply of 
" swingling-tow," the refuse of the flax-stalk 
after the spinable flax and tow had, by varying 
processes, been removed. Being very dry and 
light, it was highly inflammable, and when the 
kindling-wood was in place, the crane was 
pulled forward and a bunch of the tow hung on 
one of the long pothooks. Then Jube took the 
old king's-arm from its place behind the kitchen 
door, and, kneeling on the hearthstone, put a lit- 
tle powder in the flash-pan, then, holding it just 
under the tow, he snapped the old flint-lock, set- 
ting powder and tow in a blaze. The great log 
would last a week; at night the coals and brands 
were piled against it, the ashes were carefully 
banked, and the burning wood and coals cov- 
ered, leaving only one little breathing-place. In 
the morning, raking away the ashes, 'Mandy 
found a glowing bed ready for the day's de- 
mands. 

As the bedroom that opened from the living- 

125 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

room was always occupied, and the danger of 

fire ever on the mind, a rebellious spark could 

do little damage ere it would be revealed. Fires 

in other bedrooms were likewise on the sleepers' 

minds, and when lighted in the front room were 

not left until they also could be safely banked. 

The " sparking-fires," — those burning in one of 

the outer rooms when a suitor came to plead his 

cause, or, being successful, to plan for the future, 

— were the especial charge of the visitor, and he 

was not expected to make his farewells until tfie 

coals had burned low enough to admit of a safe 

banking. 

To light a candle or a pipe, a strong arm 

lifted a burning coal with the long, heavy tongs, 

and, bringing it toward the face with one hand, 

blew it into a flame, then the candle held in the 

other hand was quickly lighted; but a pipe was 

as often scooped into the edge of the fire, 

bringing up a layer of red ashes, that, with a puff, 

set the weed burning. Thin sticks of light wood 

were kept in a little cupboard in the chimney, 

with which a lady or a child might light a candle, 

for paper was far too scarce to burn. 

Even in warm weather, when fire was needed 

126 



FIRE AND LIGHT 

only for cooking, the kitchen fires were rarely 
allowed to go out entirely until the tinder-box 
came into general use. The spark caused by 
strike of steel on flint was not of itself sufficient 
to light the usual kindling, but a tinder-box held 
a compartment in which was placed a strip of 
linen that had been half burned, bearing the 
same relation to its former substance that char- 
coal does to wood, and easily ignited by a spark. 
The flint being struck and the tinder on fire, a 
small bit of it was pinched off with snuffers or 
fingers, and the fire was lighted in an instant. 
Closing the box secured the rest of the tinder for 
future use. Lacking such conveniences, the only 
way of getting fire was to go for it, and a " neigh- 
bor's " might be half a mile or more away. A 
boy sent on the mission would seize a burning 
brand, and by rapid motion keep it aflame even 
for a long distance, while the more sedate would 
carry a pan or shovel of coals, but with such 
haste that a description of a rapid gait was, " He 
goes as if he were carrying fire." 

The light of these early days was, universally, 
the tallow-dip or the moulded candles. Candle- 
sticks were tall, of brass or pewter or iron, often 

127 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

with a band around the slender upright part 
to which a flat hook was attached. This served 
to hang the candle on a peg if one wished the 
light raised or to carry it even with the hands full 
by hanging it from one finger. When a busy 
knitter dropped a stitch that she would find 
again, or, for any purpose a low light was 
needed, the hook would catch on the raised rim 
of the " candlestand," a small four or eight- 
sided table, on opposite sides of which the heads 
of the house sat when the family gathered within 
the shelter of the tall tow-screen. Settles were 
not known in this part of Connecticut, and a 
screen about six feet high, in five parts, each 
three feet wide, covered with heavy tow-cloth, 
confined the heat from the fire, and shielded the 
group within from the draughts that played 
about walls and windows in winter. 

In the kitchen, 'Mandy, busy over her family 
mending or knitting, had an iron lamp hanging 
from a peg in the wall near the fireplace. This 
was a shallow, three-sided iron pan about six 
inches across, with a rim hardly an inch deep. 
One side of the rim was so cut that a tongue of 

iron bent upward and partly over the pan, made 

128 



FIRE AND LIGHT 

a handle; to this a short chain was attached 
by which the lamp hung. In this dish lay a 
twisted rag on which any kind of melted grease 
was poured, and the end of the rag protruding 
at the point of the dish served for a wick, giving 
a fair light. 

'Mandy was a busy mother, for, although ma- 
terials were supplied her and the boys' clothing 
was made by the cat-whipping tailor, the patch- 
ing and knitting were endless, and she had some 
share in the coarser spinning. Daniel employed 
a weaver by the year, and the shuttle was always 
flying from one hand to the other, carrying the 
fine flaxen or woolen thread. From the weaving- 
room came forth blankets of white and plaids, 
cloths and flannels, linen of all grades, linsey- 
woolsey and tow-cloths, the winter's spinning to 
be woven in the summer and the summer's spin- 
ning in the winter. 

As Tube's vouneer brother, Samson, found 
Moll an irresistible charmer, Thaddeus trans- 
ferred him to Daniel's household. And life grew 
delightfully complicated with the varied interests 
of children of all ages. The boys found unceas- 
ing opportunity for the exercise of ingenuity 

129 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

and deft handicraft. The Yankee was rapidly 
growing away from the Englishman. Every 
generation set them farther apart, and the 
mother of invention might well be proud of her 
offspring. 

It was natural to a boy to learn the use 
of every tool and implement, the " how " and the 
" why " of every custom and process, and al- 
though there was keen zest over games of ball 
and of physical prowess, it was keener over the 
making of traps to catch woodchucks or rabbits, 
and, best of all, the frisky red squirrel, which 
was just coming into these forests. Being a 
stranger and much more playful than his gray 
cousin, he was eagerly sought, as a rare prize. 

Woodchucks were hunted by both black and 
white boys with avidity, the darker element lik- 
ing the meat, and both valuing the skin, as, when 
properly tanned and dressed, it made the most 
perfect whip-lash. When it was well stretched 
on a board, an expert boy having a sharp knife 
would cut with the cunning of Dido, and from 
the tiny hide gain so long a strip that it served 
for two or three lashes, each made of four or six 

strands, carefully braided, and the cutting was 

130 



FIRE AND LIGHT 

with such skill that the braided lash swelled 
properly toward the middle and tapered at the 
end with symmetry. 

There being no contrary law, game was often 
secured by a snare made of braided horse-hair, 
artfully looped and placed under low bushes — a 
dangerous necklace for unsuspecting quail or 
partridge. And the boys, being held responsible 
for mice in the store-room, made small traps for 
them also. 

Something to be whittled out was of unfail- 
ing interest. A nice bit of wood was full of pos- 
sibilities; spoons that stirred the hasty-puddings, 
netting-needles for making seines, checkers for 
the games played in the long winter evenings, 
and many other articles, grew under the hands 
that held the jack-knife. 

Samson was a great bee-hunter, and a man 

with that kind of a bee in his bonnet is ever alert. 

He seemed sometimes to have extra vision, for 

whether he was at work at home or a-field, he 

had usually a bee-tale to tell, and if many were 

received incredulously, occasionally he proved 

his triumph. Although beehives made a part of 

the house industry, wild honey was a treat for, be- 

131 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

ing made largely from flowers growing in 
swamps where there was little sun, it had a dis- 
tinct flavor. Many a forest tree bore a liquid 
treasure in its heart that the ordinary passer 
never suspected. The law of custom decreed that 
whoever discovered a bee-tree could claim it by 
cutting his initials on it, and the tree was his, 
even if he did not cut it down for years. A 
bee laden with pollen makes a straight line, a 
" bee-line," for home, while the one seeking food 
flits hither and yon. To discover the bee-tree 
the insect must be followed rapidly, not always 
an easy task, as the path might prove too full 
of difficulty and the flying guide be lost, even at 
what seemed the critical moment. If Samson's 
tales might be thought at times too marvellous, 
when his master was convinced that he had 
found the tree " for sure," then there was fun 
for every man and boy allowed to have a part in 
the gathering. Often in the deep woods, some- 
times on edge of swamp or meadow, on a neigh- 
bor's land, or on the master's, far or near mat- 
tered not, but late in an afternoon, when the 
bees had gone in for the night, Samson lead- 
ing his cavalcade to the spot, and, showing the 

132 



FIRE AND LIGHT 

rude S he had accomplished with his jack-knife, 
would point out the opening his keen eyes had 
discovered. Vigorous strokes laid the tree low 
and the bees were suffocated by burning a little 
sulphur at the opening, then skilful work was re- 
quired to split the hollow trunk and take out the 
large, brittle combs. These, amounting some- 
times to from fifty to one hundred and fifty 
pounds weight, were carried home in wooden 
pails and trays and with due formality presented 
to the mistress by the delighted workers, all sure 
of a large portion of honey for supper. 

133 



XVII 

FISHING AND CAMPING 

Fishing, whether in brook or river, charmed 
boy and man. Jube, having - received due per- 
mission, often invited young Thaddeus and 
Benjamin to go to Round Hill Brook, and, 
with a few whispered words and many expres- 
sive gestures, directed their casts over a still, dark 
pool, where he made sure a fine trout was rest- 
ing out of the rush of waters, or under the edge 
of a great rock, w T here another lay in hiding. 
At other times in a flat-bottomed boat on the 
river, they sought perch and pickerel. And 
when by the watercourses, he had always an eye 
for the " scouring-rush " (Equisetum hiemale) 
counting on 'Mandy's praises for bringing it in 
good quantity. This rush carries much silica in 
its fibre, and served largely in keeping the wood- 
en-ware white, being superior to everything else 

134 



FISHING AND CAMPING 

for that purpose. The growth is in single 
stalks, round and hollow, about one-quarter of 
an inch in diameter and from one to three feet 
high. This 'Mandy hung in her kitchen till it 
was dry, and then cut in lengths of five or six 
inches. A dozen of these pieces bunched, and 
tied near each end, made them easily handled. 
Before using, the brush was put in water to ren- 
der it pliable, and after doing its duty to-day it 
was hung up to dry ready for to-morrow.* 

The great fishing of the year was in the 
spring when the shad ran up the river seeking 
their birthplaces. In the early days of the Col- 
ony the " fishing rights " were the property of 
those land-holders whose borders were washed 
by the river, the Indians having a " right " near 
their reservation at Corum. As property was 
divided by inheritance, the rights were held in 
partnership, and a man sometimes sold a part or 
the whole of his share. The elder Daniel's right 
had been at the " Old Boar," just above " The 
Sow " and " The Pigs." In this property Thad- 
deus had his privilege, and extended it to his 
son. 

* Appendix 300. 
135 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

In the fall each owner in a right at a " sta- 
tion " — which was simply a place on the river- 
bank where it was possible or convenient to 
manage the seine — agreed how much net he 
would make during the winter. For this the 
best flax was used and twisted into twine 
on the wheel. The boys and the negroes 
netted in the evenings; they cast their own 
lead sinkers, and their ever-ready jack-knives 
made floats from pine. When the shad began 
to run well in the river, the nets being brought 
together in some meadow near the station, were 
joined and strung with floats and sinkers. As 
the fish always swim against the current and lie 
in groups in quiet eddies waiting for the tide to 
turn, the seine was set just before the full-tide, 
and when the waters, obeying the mysterious 
power, reversed their course, the fish, starting 
eagerly on their upward journey, met another 
fate, and were soon flopping on the sandy shore. 
A large haul was of three or four hundred, 
and, if the moonlight held good, the seine was 
drawn several times in one night. Salt shad 
for winter use were as much, if not more de- 
sired, than those for immediate consumption, 

136 



FISHING AND CAMPING 

and when the nights for drawing seine were 
made known, people came, often from long 
distances, bringing both barrels and salt to the 
river's brink; and the fish but a few moments 
since swimming in the moonlit waters were 
dressed, washed in the shallow pools near the 
shore, salted and packed away, to serve as a 
prized relish through the coming year. There 
were also buyers of fish who would sell them 
from house to house to-morrow, taking pay in 
salt-pork, with the reckoning of two pounds of 
fish for one pound of pork. 

By common consent the river was free to the 
fish on Saturdays and Sundays — a custom no 
one would presume to transgress. The cus- 
toms regulating the fishing were far more 
strictly observed than are the present laws that 
grew out of them. 

In lives unstirred by great matters, these di- 
versions were hailed with a delightful excite- 
ment. Still another in the same line was the 
annual camping out on Stratford beach at Point- 
no-Point, to rake oysters, to dig clams, to catch 
striped bass, white perch, and yellow-fin. Jube 

and Samson made an early start one morning 

137 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

in command of two ox-carts well laden with vari- 
ous farm products, and a little live freight in 
the form of small boys, while Daniel himself 
followed later in the saddle, with little Esther 
behind him on a pillion and two of the larger 
boys on another horse. The first destination was 
Captain Burroughs's wharf on the Pequonnock, 
which the oxen, leaving so long in advance, 
reached as soon as the master. Thereupon there 
was a confab over various matters, a record of 
goods received and a list of purchases to be made 
in Boston, both duly put away in the captain's 
big pocket-book. Cousin Charity had recently 
achieved the glory of a large delft platter, 
round, as were all the old platters, the blue and 
white pattern of which had been dancing before 
Mary's eyes ever since she saw it. A like treas- 
ure must be hers also, for, although even in Eng- 
land pewter still made the usual dinner-service, 
there was a creeping in of bits of " delft " — 
Chinese-ware largely — and of the early English 
dishes for use on the dinner-table, the " tea- 
dishes " having already found their place for the 
lighter meal. 

There were also commissions for various 

138 



FISHING AND CAMPING 

household necessaries and personal adornments, 
all of which Captain Burroughs carefully tran- 
scribed in his account-book, which remains unto 
this day. 

As soon as the ox-carts were unloaded they 
were started again in advance, while the riders, 
after adjusting details of prices and possibili- 
ties of date for the return voyage, finally took 
their way also along the old King's Highway, and 
the children rejoiced as they neared the toll-gate 
to hear the clattering hoofs and the strident cry 
of the post-rider, Andrew Hurd, " Open the 
gates for the King's Post! " 

Over Old Mill Hill they went, past the long, 

narrow, elm-bordered green where the vision 

reaches over the blue waters of the Sound to the 

green fields and trees of Long Island, and on 

down into Stratford village; past Benjamin's 

tavern, where Washington and Lafayette were to 

meet a few years hence, and down the long street 

to the Lordship meadow and Point-no-Point — 

that deceptive outline of land which from the 

water seems a protruding point, but which in 

reality curves but little. 

A flat-bottomed fishing-boat about twenty 

139 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

feet long was hired, which, tilted on its side, and 
well banked with sand, would make a shelter for 
the nights. Great bunches of dry sea-weed 
served for beds and pillows. The careful mother 
and faithful 'Mandy had provided ample store 
of coverlids and food, and Daniel knowing that 
the men were to be trusted with the three white 
boys, who, with Jube's little ones, were already 
prospecting for clams, he left them, first to ar- 
range with the owner of a salt meadow for " a 
jag of salt hay," then to carry little Esther to 
her kindred, while he sought other friends and 
affairs. 

The days went all too fast* with the clam-dig- 
gers and fishermen, and the night's sound sleep 
was well earned. Swimming in the warm salt- 
water, fishing from the boat, wading in the 
creek's mouth with bare feet, to feel the 
oysters that were to be raked up, exploring 
at low tide the round holes on the sand-bars that 
betrayed the clam's refuge, and cooking and 
eating in the open, was living out a story-book 
almost before such story-books were written. 

Meantime little Esther in a gown of double- 
plaid sat in a low, straight-backed chair, knitting 

140 



FISHING AND CAMPING 

a long garter, enjoying seed-cake and other 
dainties, that bear a distinct flavor in a house 
other than home. She skipped joyfully along the 
garden paths among flowers strange and familiar, 
running out occasionally through the white gate 
to the corner, where, between the tops of the 
beautiful elm trees, she could see the brass 
weathercock which was pierced by British shot a 
few years later, and still turns this way and that 
on the church steeple. The dear grandmother 
knew how to prevent any feeling of loneli- 
ness as twilight neared, and there was an extra 
serving of jam, after the bread and milk in the 
pewter porringer had disappeared. There were 
kittens to feed and cuddle and one to be chosen 
for Esther to take home, in a loose bag to be 
carried on her lap. 

When the time came for the reluctant home- 
ward journey and the hill-top was regained, an 
unfolding of budgets, mental and material, fol- 
lowed, Jube bringing his mistress a bunch of 
unicorn-root, one of the remedies provided 
against the colds and coughs that cold weather 
might develop. 

Doctors were at a distance and every wise 

141 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

mother had a stock of simples which she used 
with discretion and ability. Tansy was not exactly 
a cure-all, but so potent that in the spring, when 
the leaves were small and tender, it was served 
in tansy pancakes, which the children did not 
altogether dislike. A few leaves in a bottle of 
rum made " tansy-bitters," the first remedy for 
any sensation of cold or " goneness," and the 
long list of herbs, dock, pennyroyal, boneset, 
horehound, catnip, sage and wormwood, were 
as much a part of the harvest as the ripened 
grain. And when the first warm days of 
spring marred the crispness of humanity, garlic 
and rum, a spoonful once a day, was adminis- 
tered to a line of children, willing or unwilling, 
and neither white nor black mother failed in 
this duty. 

The little fingers of the household found 
a perennial pleasure in gathering nuts and 
berries in their season, and if their games were 
not as varied as a kindergarten series, there 
were hide-and-seek, blindman's-buff, fox and 
geese, and best of all, oats-peas-beans-and-bar- 
ley-grows, when, all the doors being set open, 

the children, joining hands, circled the great 

142 



FISHING AND CAMPING 

chimney, coming to a stand-still in the living- 
room, for " Now you are married you must 
obey." Tag also gained an extra zest when the 
chimney's great bulwark was to be dodged, 
but even a venturesome child would not dare 
to take advantage of this freedom of the floor 
to do injury to any of the furniture. There 
was a wholesome restraint as natural as was 
movement, that did not cultivate the organ of 
destructiveness. 

Dolls were almost as mythical as fairies, but a 
" rag-baby " was loved and dressed and caressed 
with joy and satisfaction. 

The fingers of the negro, like those of the In- 
dian, were apt in the plaiting of baskets and in the 
twisting of rushes for seating the plainer chairs, 
whose frames were turned by the hill carpenter. 
In the long evenings these articles grew under 
the hands of men and boys, the baskets often 
being stained red by a solution of copperas in 
vinegar. The rushes used were of different 
growths, the cat-tail serving for the heavier 
work. Mops were made of corn-husks bound 
to a handle, the husks having been drawn 
through a hetchel which shredded them, and 

143 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

door-mats of husks^ whole or hetcheled, were 
braided with pride and pleasure. The straw 
hats for common use were made from the whole 
rye-straw, plaited often by the children, and 
sewed into form by the women over a block 
giving the shape of the crown. 

One of a boy's great treasures was a ball made 
from an old stocking leg ravelled, and carefully 
wound, then covered with soft leather by the 
mother's skilful fingers. A form of base-ball 
was the important game, varied by " four-holey- 
crack " and " round-ball," while all feats of skill 
and daring were welcomed. Fear was not culti- 
vated. To be brave, to be skilful in whatever 
one set a hand to, to accomplish everything un- 
dertaken, to surmount difficulty, gave life a per- 
petual goal. Nothing was more clearly demon- 
strated in the later conflict with disciplined armies 
than that he that had been faithful in little would 
be faithful also in much. That the hour of emer- 
gency must be the hour of triumph is one of the 
great underlying principles for the success of a 

venture or a country. 

144 



>i 



XVIII 

FASHIONS 

Fashion moved slowly a century and a half 
ago. Before the French revolution a doll 
dressed in the latest mode carried the patterns 
from France to Vienna once a year. Fabrics 
made by the old methods were enduring, and 
one was not much out of style if he wore his gar- 
ments in the first cut even to shabbiness. Dress, 
however, was important, the first consideration 
being that the material be of fine quality, and 
there was ever some tinge of novelty lending a 
charm to purchasers. Man's dress, varied by 
style of button, length of cuff and vest, and the 
discarding of buckram lining in the coat skirts, 
retained its main characteristics through a long 
period. Cocked hats gave place to very tall 
crowns with brims drooping and curling, until 

one was evolved whose wide brim was rolled 

145 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

close to the crown at the side, dipping like a 
canopy at front and back. Low shoes and knee- 
breeches, or " small clothes,'' with the glitter of 
silver buckles, lasted long. Many a man dying 
at an old age before 1820 never wore a boot in 
his life, even though he did service under arms 
for his country. Coats and whole suits were 
of all colors, black being chiefly for the clergy 
and for mourning. Vests were of cloth, 
brocade, velvet, satin, cassimere, and all woollen 
materials, blue and gray, claret and green, with 
deep pocket-flaps and silver or other bright but- 
tons. The great-coat of blue camlet, with sev- 
eral short capes, long of waist and large of but- 
ton, trousers of leather and leggings of deer-skin, 
were a protection against storm, although the 
more ordinary legging was simply an extra 
stocking-leg well tucked in the low shoe. Over- 
shoes were of very heavy leather, but no higher 
than the other shoe, and occasionally made like 
a moccasin, all of one piece. Women also might 
have leather overshoes, and sometimes goloshes 
or " pattens " — a wooden arrangement fastened 
under the sole of the shoe, raising it from the 

ground. 

146 



FASHIONS 

Quilted petticoats, over which the upper dress 
opened, were of silk, satin, or woollen, and were 
wrought in marvellous patterns of flowers and 
fruits; of the woollens the favorite was " russet," 
a fabric which, whatever the foundation color, 
bore also an iridescent gloss. Trails were deri- 
sively called "sweep-streets," and, like many of his 
sex, Daniel objected to them. So when Esther, 
his eldest daughter, had attained the dignity of 
fourteen years, and he bought for her the neces- 
sary material for a gown of a red and gray serge, 
it was presented with the caution, " Put all you 
please in the roundabout, but don't let any of it 
down on the ground." 

Bonnets were naturally evolved from hoods. 
First a reed was put in the front edge to prevent 
its falling over the face, and gradually, near the 
close of the last century, bonnets appeared, not 
yet however of plaited straw, but of silk and 
other materials made over a foundation " bonnet- 
paper " of stiff pasteboard. Hats with crowns 
and brims made of stiff fabrics covered with vel- 
vet or satin, had been in use for generations in 
fashionable life, but beyond the great towns a 

hood was the universal covering for a woman's 

147 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

head. This was often attached to the cloak, a 
cloak meaning a circular garment without 
sleeves, which was made of woollen stuff, of 
velvet, or of silk crape. When quite short, like 
a modern cape, they were called " pugs," and 
were of velvet, cloth, or even gauze. Hoods 
separate from the cloaks were of various mate- 
rials, to suit the seasons, and a sun-bonnet of 
checked linen or flowered calico did every-day 
duty in warm weather. 

When a woman rode on a pillion a cloak 
served her purpose, but when in the saddle, a 
long-waisted coat was more convenient. So 
there were coats and waistcoats of the various 
stuffs, and sometimes a " mantee " — a coat with 
sleeves, that hung open from the throat, showing 
the handsome waist and petticoat. Caps and 
kerchiefs were universally worn during a long 
term of years; fans, "pockets" (fancy bags to 
hang from the waist) and aprons of silk or fine 
lawn were mere adornments; and one or two 
strings of gold beads made part of the dress of 
every woman who ranked in any of the upper 
classes. Gloves were of silk, of wool, and of 

" leather " (kid), and mitts were of varying styles 

148 



FASHIONS 

and lengths at different periods. Calico was ex- 
pensive, coming from India, and at times more 
valued than silk, because more costly. 

Wigs were rarely worn in the country save by 
professional men, but gentlemen usually wore 
their hair in a cue. And when the fashion 
prevailed of cutting a boy's hair straight across 
the forehead, Daniel's little troop stood in line 
waiting their turns, while the mother, tying a 
long knitted garter around a little head, deftly 

snipped away the locks that came below it. 

149 



XIX 

THE TORY NON-COMBATANTS 

A spirit of unrest under injustice was stirring 
the various colonies. The Stamp Act, the Bos- 
ton Port Bill, and the Tax on Tea were felt as 
pressure from the hand of tyranny. " The lux- 
ury of being free " was craved, entreated, and 
finally fought for, not without fear on the part 
of many wise men regarding the outcome for a 
people without united government, with neither 
army nor treasury. " The first revolutionary 
assembly that convened in Boston promulgated 
the principle of the revolution of 1688 — ' Resist- 
ance to unjust laws is obedience to God/ and it 
became a watchword throughout the colonies."* 
The great body of the people were ready to risk 

* Seward on death of Daniel Webster, United States 
Senate, December, 1852. 

150 



THE TORY NON-COMBATANTS 

the issue. But inheritance is a gathering of many 
streams: 

"Thou hast inherited thy father's lands 
And all his debts thereon,"— 

his faith, his opinions, his prejudices, as well as 
his tastes and temperament. With the first ef- 
forts in the struggle a large part of the Church- 
men felt themselves on the side of the King. 
However great might be their sympathy with the 
gathering armies, to the elders at least loyalty 
was a matter of conscience. The Church was, in 
a measure, under the King's protection and sup- 
port, and the prayers of the faithful were for his 
welfare. Many quickly solved the problem by re- 
moval to the Provinces of Nova Scotia and Can- 
ada; some were so outspoken in their allegiance 
that they were requested to remove; some boldly 
followed the British army, or secretly aided its 
purpose. The question was full of difficulty not 
easily appreciated by later generations, in face of 
the result. Many a man who had fought with all 
his heart for the King in the colonial wars now 
fought against him, and many who did not take 
up arms in the revolution gladly saw their sons 

do so in the war of 1812; the transferrence of 

151 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

allegiance is a slower process with some than 
with others. 

The impetuous nature is always more militant 
than the sedate, and the searcher of genealogies 
is easily convinced of the influence of heredity. 
The professions, public office, the army, the sea, 
seem often as much a matter of inheritance as 
bonds and acres, and the soldier born is better 
than the soldier made. The first call roused the 
fighting blood, not only that near the large cen- 
tres and seaports where tidings came quickly, but 
also in the upper districts. 

Connecticut was not as eager for the war as 
some of the other colonies. She believed always 
in government by the people as distinguished 
from " the divine right of kings." Each man had 
by representation his share of action when the 
General Court met " to agitate the affairs of the 
Commonwealth." Her charter secured to her 
special privileges, and save during the Andros 
episode she had always elected her own govern- 
or and other officers. She bore, moreover, a 
distinctive temper, a spirit of moderation, that 
owing to her growth under the peculiar liberties 

of her charter and constitution gave to her chil- 

152 



THE TORY NON-COMBATANTS 

dren a special character. The conservatism of 
the Church of England, which gained her strong- 
est foothold in New England in this Colony, and 
at the outbreak of the revolution had twenty 
clergy and forty churches, was also not without 
influence. 

The twelve years from 1763 to 1775 were 
those of great prosperity to Connecticut, but al- 
though, when the Stamp Act passed Parliament, 
Franklin wrote home, " The sun of liberty is 
set; you must light up the candles of industry 
and economy," there were many who would 
not accept the situation. As early as 1774 
the " Sons of Liberty " banded, and on village- 
greens set up tall poles with " Liberty " carved 
on them, while the " Daughters of Liberty " 
bound themselves to suffer any discomfort or 
privation rather than use or wear the product of 
the oppressing country.* 

Injustice in any form was deplored, was men- 
tally resisted, and the success of the Colonial 
Agency at the Court of Great Britain was part 
of the petition enjoined upon the people in the 
Thanksgiving Proclamation, while " Touch not, 

* Appendix 301. 
153 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

taste not, handle not " tea, served as a text for 
many a sermon. The desire for greater free- 
dom was strong, but the sober side of 
war with a great power, and the possibilities 
that might follow success in arms, even as they 
did arise in the critical period, stayed many a 
voice and foot in the beginning. To protect a 
sea-coast from the St. John in New Brunswick 
almost to the St. John's in Florida, and a 
frontier extending from the tip of Maine, skirting 
the great lakes and dipping into the wide river 
valleys, was enough to make a wise head shake 
doubtingly. 

Still, many a man's heart longed to go for- 
ward whose feet were bound to the threshold. 
He might serve on the Alarm List, " training " 
at stated intervals and holding himself ready 
for a call that might, and perhaps did, come. 
But to supply the army and the families, crops 
must be cultivated; the women and children, 
the aged and the feeble, could not do all the 
work; therefore if six brothers entered the lists, 
the seventh remained behind. 

Besides these martyrs in will, if not in deed, 

there were the Tory non-combatants, those who 

154 



THE TORY NON-COMBATANTS 

neither helped nor hindered the enemy. These, 
though in sympathy with the movement for in- 
dependence in 1776, stayed their hands, deeming 
allegiance due the King despite unjust rule, but 
though praying always " that his heart might be 
moved to the more reasonable ministering of his 
subjects' affairs, " were unwilling to lift sword 
against him. The Church clergy of Connecticut 
held a convention in New Haven, July 23, 1776, 
and resolved to suspend the services in their 
churches, which, with only two or three ex- 
ceptions, was done. Some of the rectors suf- 
fered unjust accusation and imprisonment, while 
others, like Parson Newton, were permitted to 
abide in peace as long as the church remained 
closed, and prayers for the King were not uttered 
in the name of the people. 

When the war-cry sounded, although Daniel's 
eldest son was a well-grown stripling of seven- 
teen, and Daniel himself but a little past forty 
years of age, they remained deaf to the call, as 
did most of their name and kindred, all of whom 
were members of the Church of England. The 
slaves of the household, now numbering in old 

and young eleven, bound to their master's inter- 

155 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

est, and following him in religious matters, dared 
not, if they would, echo the sentiments or follow 
the example of others of their race, to whom 
every idea of "freedom" was alluring. With 
war-tidings the land was rife. Principle and 
sympathy were often at variance in Tory hearts, 
and almost daily one or another traversed the 
roads that gave long views of the Sound and 
saw the warning beacon-fires ready for lighting. 

The " Spindle-tree," near the crest of Spindle- 
tree Hill, was a great chestnut with a trunk 
eighteen feet in circumference and fully one 
hundred feet high. The lack of lower branches 
proved that it had grown in the dense forest, 
but the white man found it standing alone, in a 
clearing the Indians had made about it. It was 
an old Indian rendezvous, and the last Indians 
of that district lived but a short distance from it. 
That it was a resort of the arrow-makers is 
proved by the quantity of arrow-heads, chips, 
and unfinished arrows, found in an adjoining 
field.* 

This tree had served the Indians as a signal- 
station in summoning the tribes, and, being 
* Appendix 302. 
156 



THE TORY NON-COMBATANTS 

visible for over twenty miles on the Sound, it 
was a landmark for the white man, and was now 
chosen to bear a message to watchers nearer the 
shore, if the enemy should be seen advancing 
over the blue waters. The tree was very 
straight, and a long, slender upper limb, having 
been struck by lightning, had fallen and lodged 
in a fork of the tree, balancing there, and bear- 
ing the appearance of the spindle so familiar to 
the spinning community. 

Beach, the husband of Charity, was already 
under a captain's commission in the colonial 
militia, and when the need arose, he and his 
company of men, went from Ripton to the re- 
lief of New York, having their part in the re- 
treat from White Plains, and going into winter 
quarters on the Hudson, under General Putnam. 
They marched also when the cry arose from Dan- 
bury, and when there was a call for reinforce- 
ments at Peekskill, three of Beach's sons also 
serving under him, or other redoubtable fighters. 
His wife, Charity, true at heart still to the faith 
of her youth and parentage, and firm in the be- 
lief of the success of the royal cause, bore 

a troubled spirit, as, eager for the fray, hus- 

157 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

band and sons left her, while she had to bear 
the woman's lot of uncertainty and waiting. 
But women's hearts are brave, and with the 
same spirit that made another woman cover the 
pain of parting with, " Look out, Amos, that 
you don't get shot in the back," Charity implored 
her daring captain to be cautious, or he " would 
be caught by the conquering British and hung 
on the Spindle-tree yonder." 

Real warfare, however, came no closer to 
these hills than plundering parties along the bor- 
der of the Sound near Stratford, and Tryon's 
burning, pillaging expedition. 

There were, however, always foraging parties 
to be feared, and captures of their boats were 
not infrequently made by men of coolness and 
daring. Records of such adventures were com- 
mon property, and the committees of safety and 
inspection in the various towns were always alert 
lest a Tory in some disguise, or in open avowal, 
proved aid or pilot. They made search in 
houses where sympathy was supposed to be with 
the enemy, or where tea might be used. When 
one of the august committee was seen ap- 
proaching Daniel's house looking for tea there, 

153 



THE TORY NON-COMBATANTS 

it was Mary herself who met him at the door 
with a kettle of boiling water, that, in passing, 
she had quickly lifted from, the fire, and said 
that no one could enter without receiving the 
kettle's contents on his head! And lawlessness 
alone, might serve to knock up at dead of night 
with a demand for cider, a man who, if he showed 
a timorous spirit, could be kept on the lower 
side of his cellar-door while his house was plun- 
dered. 

Those who, like Daniel, desired to be merely 
non-combatants looked well to their words and 
ways, reading the prayers for the King at family 
worship, but guarding the tongue outside their 
own walls, and on " being Drafted on a Towar 
of Duty at Fairfield in the 6th Company of 
Alarm List, on Refusing to Go has paid a fine of 
five pounds Agreeable to an Act of Assembly 
of this State." 

There were excitements of various kinds to 
rouse interest in people of both parties. The 
New London Gazette of April 19, 1776, testifies 
that Stratford village was in great tumult, 
as it states: " The following odd affair hap- 
pened at Stratford on the 10th of last month. 

159 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

A child of Mrs. Edwards, of that town, 
was baptized by the Rev. Mr. Learning and 
named Thomas Gage; this alarmed the neigh- 
borhood, and on the 13th, one hundred and 
seventy young ladies formed themselves into a 
Battalion, and with solemn ceremony appointel 
a General and other proper officers to lead them 
on; then the Petticoat Army marched in the 
greatest good order to pay their compliments 
to Thomas Gage and present his mother (the 
Nymphs ought to have deferred this part of the 
Business says our Correspondent) with a suit of 
Tar and Feathers. But Thomas's Sire having 
Intelligence of their Expedition, Vi et Armis, 
kept them from entering his house, so that the 
female Soldiers after giving three Huzzas re- 
turned to their Head Quarters without affecting 
what they intended, and disbanded themselves. 
Col. Whiting's wife headed them." 

Of quite another interest was the great wed- 
ding in Fairfield of John Hancock and Dorothy 
Quincy, and it served for more than a nine days' 
wonder. Boston being still under control of 
the British General Gage, it was deemed ex- 
pedient that Miss Dorothy meet her lover in 

160 



THE TORY NON-COMBATANTS 

Fairfield and that the wedding take place at the 
house of Mr. Thaddeus Burr. The occasion 
was one for fine feathers of all sorts, and the 
fame thereof reached far back on the hills. Those 
so fortunate as to be bidden told the tale to 
those less so, and the record of costume and 
hair-dressing, of trains and petticoats, of pearls 
and powder, of slippers and dancing, was far 
more enjoyable than that of siege and fortress, 
of pain and death. 

161 



XX 

THE FRENCH ARMY 

The years of war dragged on. The French 
fleet arrived at Newport in the spring of 1781, 
and as it was desired to reinforce Washington on 
the Hudson with part of the troops, while La- 
fayette himself went with the ships to Virginia, 
a section of the army under the Count Rocham- 
beau, the Due de Lauzun and other officers, 
crossed Connecticut. De Lauzun, with his legion 
of six hundred men, cavalry, hussars, grenadiers, 
and lancers, passed through New Haven June 
2.7, camped on Sentinel Hill, in Derby, then 
wound down the steep roads, crossed Nauga- 
tuck and Housatonic Rivers, and took the wind- 
ing way up the west bank of the latter, finding 
it necessary at times to improve the road with a 
double corduroy for the passage of the heavy 

wagons. Finally, the steep ascent being made, 

162 



THE FRENCH ARMY 

the route wound around the upper hills till it 
reached " the Centre " of New Stratford, now 
the town of Monroe. 

The road leading by such toilsome effort up 
from the river reached a level near the foot of 
Daniel's especial hill, and it was not possible for 
such a company to move unheralded. No man 
or boy, white or black, could be kept from a close 
inspection, while the women and girls contented 
themselves perforce with a more remote view. 

Weary as the army was with the ascent, an 
array of six hundred men with all the splendor of 
gold lace and nodding plumes, the horses bravely 
caparisoned, and the retinue of " five-cattle 
teams " that had been hired to convey the heavy 
baggage, was a rare sight to those whose 
knowledge of military display had been limited 
to the " training " of one small company of men 
not even in uniform, or an occasional " trooper " 
as he rode to his camp. 

The army wound around the base of Barn 

Hill, and, passing the green at New Stratford 

after sunset, camped in a sloping meadow a 

little south of the village. It was in June, " in 

clover-time," and there were spent and hungry 

163 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

beasts of burden waiting under the star-lit skies 
for their well-earned meal, that would have been 
sadly insufficient if the patriotic William Scott 
had not rallied his neighbors and mowed his 
home-lot by the light of the rising moon. 

The officers found comfortable quarters at the 
tavern kept by Hepzibah's brother Nehemiah. 
Tavern-keeping in such places was a most re- 
spectable business. The taverns were the early 
mail stations, and when all public transports and 
service were lacking mine host must be a man 
of responsibility — often the foremost man of the 
village — ready, if need be, to meet emergencies, 
and to be trusted with affairs pertaining to the 
State. He must be a man to keep his own coun- 
sel and able to counsel others, and with oppor- 
tunities within reach of few for communication 
with the powers that be. 

The French officers, de Lauzun, who spoke 
English readily, Dillon, de Hoen, and others, 
found interest and pleasure in this life. Com- 
fortable quarters, a social and stirring host with 
good French blood in his veins, a man with 
natural ease, genial address and politeness of 

manner, of keen insight and discerning mind, 

164 



THE FRENCH ARMY 

contrasted agreeably with army life. The 
other gentlemen of the village were ready for 
all kind and hospitable entertainment, for friend- 
liness and courtesy, and as the full moon made 
the summer evenings alluring, the musicians of 
the army called out the gentlemen's daughters, 
who, to prove their sympathy with the cause of 
freedom, danced with the officers on the green, 
one of them, alas! dancing her heart away. 

While the army lingered a son was born to 
Nehemiah, and named for the commander of the 
legion, " de Lauzun." When camp was broken 
and farewells said, one of the officers left his 
rapier with the squire as a souvenir, the blade 
of which bears to the present day the inscription 
of the maker in Paris. 

This peaceful side of war held great charm, 
and every boy, were his sympathies Federal or 
Tory, sought the camp. Daniel's elder sons, 
sitting their horses with the younger boys be- 
hind them, hardly knew which side would claim 
their allegiance under the beauty of French uni- 
forms and the glitter of their accoutrements. It 
seemed far more like leading to a successful issue 

than a company of men in every-day dress sup- 

165 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

plemented by muskets and canteens. But they 
had been so thoroughly educated to respect ex- 
isting authority, and they were by inheritance 
so entirely of that strain of loyalty that is long- 
enduring and slow of change, that withal they 
could not believe freedom desirable or at- 
tainable. So they returned to their life, little 
touched by the mighty signs, for when they 
recounted the tale of splendor every lingering 
influence was checked by a bidding to go into 
the parlor and look at the King! 

So that army came and went, leaving one 
French soldier, Louis Luriche, on the hills, and 
this man told the story of the Frenchman's use 
of tobacco. In the early summer the tobacco, 
cultivated for many years in Connecticut, was 
in small leaf. The soldiers never having seen it 
growing, marvelled much over its use, and 
finally, with true French instinct, concluded it 
must be something to put in soup, which they 
did forthwith! 

The war meant more than strife and blood- 
shed, defeat or victory, whichever side enlisted 
one's sympathies or however aloof one kept 
from action. There was sorrow in the hearts and 

166 



THE FRENCH ARMY 

homes whose brave men came not back. There 
was a shadow of poverty hovering over many 
households, and some of the ordinary necessaries 
of life were attainable, if to be had at all, only at 
immoderate prices. Salt was $27 a bushel, and in 
1777 John Adams wrote from Philadelphia, " all 
the old women and young children have gone to 
the Jersey shore to make salt." Pepper, spices, 
and West India products were almost out of the 
market; cornstalks were ground to make molas- 
ses, the West India product rising to $20 a gal- 
lon. Tea was as high as $90 a pound, butter $12, 
linen $20 a yard, and ordinary calico $30 and 
$40, the exchange of continental or colonial 
money for " hard money " being from 70 to 75 
per cent. Even the school-boys were put to an 
exercise of wits for proper appliances, and as, 
owing to privateering, writing-paper was very 
scarce, they worked out their arithmetical prob- 
lems on birch-bark instead. Pins were not to 
be had for love or money, and all imported 
dress materials were both dear and scarce. In 
all these matters Federals and Loyalists suffered 

the same privation. 

167 



XXI 

THE UNCERTAIN YEARS 

This period of conflict brought other phases 
of life to Daniel's household. When the winter 
of 1778 was passing into spring, Queen Esther 
realized that her earthly life was drifting away 
also, even before its sum of years was quite 
threescore and ten. One night, as she and 
Thaddeus sat before the fire, the words that for 
days had been hovering about her lips were 
spoken with that quiet composure with which the 
true-hearted face not only the inevitable, but 
also the realization of their faith, and she told 
him what he could see only too well, that the 
hour of separation was near. So she planned his 
future — that the younger Thaddeus should has- 
ten his marriage, and bring to the house he was 
to inherit the young wife, and kinswoman, to 

whose filial care she must trust the dear husband, 

168 



THE UNCERTAIN YEARS 

so close already to the burden of eighty years. 
She spoke not only of separation but of reunion, 
of the life that had been, and that would be, and 
her mind was at rest. 

May had barely shed its beauty on the out- 
side world when the joy of Thaddeus' home 
was removed, and after three years of loneliness 
the great light shone for him also, and his mor- 
tal body was laid beside hers in the dear church- 
yard at Ripton, where the gravestones remain 
to this day. The inscription on that of Thad- 
deus records their faith: 

" The Woman's Seed shall bruise the Serpent's Head 
And Christ shall raise his Servants from the dead." 

Nor was sorrow at this sundering of earthly 
ties the only supreme emotion in the lives of 
Daniel and Mary and their children. Esther 
grown to sweet young maidenhood, a rosy- 
cheeked and blue-eyed girl, sedate and dig- 
nified, ere her eighteenth summer dawned had 
given heart and hand to the son of a Newtown 
squire and crossed the Half-way River (half way 
from Stratford to Woodbury) to her new home. 
Despite the high prices caused by the war, her 

setting-out was not inferior, having its full com- 

169 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

plement of silver, china, pewter, linen, furniture, 
an " Irish-stitch " (damask) table-cloth, and two 
slaves, Jack and Peg. 

On October 19, 1781, down in Virginia, a 
thrilling moment came. Between the lines 
of the French army, with Rochambeau at its 
head, and the American army led by Washing- 
ton, marched a line of red-coated officers, the 
foremost, Major O'Hara, bearing the sword of 
Cornwallis, while the British drums beat the air 
" The world turned topsy-turvy." * To all sym- 
pathizers with the King, it seemed so, and the 
Federals themselves found victory at arms not 
the only success needed. There was long wait- 
ing and much petty warfare ere the Treaty of 
Peace was signed, followed by the long six years 
before the Constitution wasadopted,duringwhich 
every lawless and discontented spirit sought to 
take advantage of the unformed government. 
The Union, which, from the peril of its birth, had 
passed through infancy only by sacrifice and self- 
surrender on the part of its guardians, now, like a 
tempestuous boy, seemed ruled by every vagary. 
Firm hands and wise heads must direct its course, 

* Appendix 302. 
170 



THE UNCERTAIN YEARS 

and " as victory was granted them in the hour of 
battle, so wisdom was now in the days of peace. 
The history of the world furnishes no parallel to 
this condition and its outcome." Even amid 
all the minor disturbances between '83 and '89 
schools and colleges multiplied, slavery came 
virtually to an end at the North, commerce with 
China and other countries began, and, however 
perplexed were affairs of state, many private en- 
terprises started on the road to success. This 
condition, however, obtained more in the busy 
centres than in the rural districts. Agriculture 
had suffered some neglect because of the lives 
given to, or lost by, the sword. A smut appeared 
on the wheat, caused by the " Hessian fly," an 
insect supposed to have been imported with the 
Hessians' baggage, and for fifty years after the 
war little or no wheat was raised in this part of 
western Connecticut. The slaves were variously 
treated. Connecticut's legislature declared all 
born after 1784 free at twenty-five years of age. 
Some masters granted freedom at once to all 
their colored retainers, many of whom, however, 
preferred remaining where they were sure of 

care and comfort, finding their interests too 

171 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

closely identified with their masters' to desire 
change, but some were ever ready to give them- 
selves to any disturbance. Among the latter was 
Bose, a " likely " negro of Daniel's, about seven- 
teen years old, who, under the influence of other 
restless spirits, ran away in 1787 to join Shay's 
rebellion in Massachusetts, finding his way back, 
however, after a brief period, no longer a lad of 
promise, but with impaired mind, having doubt- 
less received a severe blow on the head. Bose 
was a native African who had come into Daniel's 
household during the early years of the war. He 
was very black, of a forbidding countenance, 
and had given promise of much capacity, but re- 
turned from his adventure with a cloud over his 
nature as well as over his mind. It was evident 
that he had been overcome, recovered himself, 
and again plunged into the fray, as, although 
after his return he never spoke unless spoken to, 
his reply was always supplemented with " fought 
agin." Every morning he appeared before his 
master for orders, for, being no longer capable of 
taking his place with the able-bodied workers, he 
was set about lighter matters, and on receiving 

directions his reply was invariably, " Yis, sir; 

172 



THE UNCERTAIN YEARS 

fought agin," unless he doubled the emphasis 
with " fought agin; yis, sir; fought agin." The 
boys of the neighborhood held him in awe, for, 
although he watched them at their games with- 
out disturbing them, he was never seen to smile; 
but they had difficulty in hiding their own 
amusement when, at their request, those more at 
home with him would ask a simple question for 
the sake of hearing the inevitable " fought agin." 
There seemed also to arise in him some mem- 
ory of a past in a far-off land, that found expres- 
sion in certain rites undoubtedly full of meaning 
to him, devoid of it as they appeared to others. 
Sticks of a certain length, carefully notched, and 
particular pieces of string, carried always in his 
pockets, were brought out at every leisure mo- 
ment, and, with a muttering like an incantation, 
were handled with the same spirit of devotion a 
Romanist has for a rosary. With these sticks and 
strings he measured everything, and if mischiev- 
ous little boys laid hands on them, he simply pro- 
cured others as soon as possible, with never a 
look or word of blame. His pockets also con- 
tained bits of salt pork, with which he greased 

not only these treasures but his garters and hat- 

173 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

band. These rites seemed of such importance to 
his disordered mind that he was not disturbed in 
them, and in all ways was treated by Daniel with 
that kind consideration that marks the gentle- 
man who is both Christian and master. 

Benjamin, the second son, though " brought 
up to college," had not fulfilled that expectation. 
The war was a disturber of many plans; the 
Latin Grammar did not prove entrancing, for the 
bright eyes and laughing words of a girl had 
cast a spell over him that even the associa- 
tions of " Brainerd's Rock " could not withstand. 
David Brainerd, of Haddam, the first missionary 
to the Stockbridge Indians, having been ex- 
pelled from Yale College because of his sym- 
pathy with Whitefield's preaching, had been 
kindly received by the Rev. Jedediah Mills, who 
considered the treatment unjust, and he was by 
him prepared for the ministry. About half a mile 
from Mr. Mills' house at the Centre, back from 
the highway and under spreading branches, in a 
peaceful meadow, was a great boulder, which the 
persecuted student sought so often that the tradi- 
tion thereof made it a resort for scholars of sev- 
eral generations. But the influence failed when 

174 



THE UNCERTAIN YEARS 

Benjamin had so charming a vision ever before 
his mind's eye, and he was not sorry when, during 
the war the Yale classes being scattered, the 
freshmen at Farmington, sophomores and juniors 
at Glastonbury, and a few seniors under Tutor 
Dwight in New Haven, there seemed no sure- 
ness of outcome, and his line of life passed from 
books to nature, from Latin roots to Mother 
Earth's harvests. 

175 



XXII 
ST. PUMPKIN'S DAY AND CHRISTMAS 

For the Churchman the result of the war was 
fraught with consequences almost beyond his 
hopes. It was with deep joy and thankful- 
ness in the hearts of those who loved her orders 
and her services that the Rev. Samuel Seabury, 
duly elected Bishop of Connecticut, set sail to 
receive consecration for that holy office. It was 
granted, as it proved, not at the hands of the 
English bishops, who were prohibited by the 
English ministry from delegating such power to 
one who could not swear allegiance to the King, 
but at the hands of the nonjuring bishops, the 
Scotch hierarchy at Aberdeen. 

Seabury's sympathy had not been with the 
Declaration of Independence. In 1775 he had 
suffered persecution, arrest, confinement, and 
destruction of property, and had finally taken 

refuge in New York, acting as chaplain to the 

176 



ST. PUMPKIN'S DAY AND CHRISTMAS 

Loyal American (Tory) regiment. At the end of 
the war he did not embark for Nova Scotia be- 
fore Sir Guy Carleton withdrew his forces from 
New York, as did many under inducement from 
the Crown, but remained, believing that the way 
would be opened for the church of his love and 
devotion. 

The years of struggle had tempered his feeling, 
and, with strong hope, Seabury left the shores 
of New England, to be invested by the Right 
Reverend Fathers in God with the power that 
would enable his " Mother the Church " to bear 
her full measure in forming the lives of many 
who were to grow up as rulers and servants in 
the new nation. In oneness of purpose much 
party feeling had been buried. Philemon Rob- 
bins of Bradford, who preached openly after the 
Stamp Act in favor of resistance, and condemned 
the doctrine of passive obedience and non-re- 
sistance, as " a doctrine held only by the high- 
flying Churchman," had no longer need for his 
terms of reproach, and Seabury's own words that 
he " presumed the Church people had as much 
religion as their neighbors," would not now be 

uttered in the same ironical spirit. 

177 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

On Seabury's first visitation as Bishop to the 
various parishes, he confirmed not only the 
young who were " sufficiently instructed," but 
those of all ages who had been admitted to the 
Holy Communion, which, in parishes including 
several churches, sometimes numbered a few 
hundreds. The church at Ripton again opened 
its doors, and it was with deep gratitude that 
Parson Newton, so long loved and honored, 
gathered his flock before him, ministering to 
them as of old. And he was thankful that in his 
latter days he could present to the Bishop his 
body of communicants, who were all well-in- 
structed Churchmen ready to receive the rite of 
confirmation, so far known to them only as an 
inheritance due but not accorded, save to the 
few who had crossed the sea to receive the rite. 

Again Christmas and Easter might be kept 
as a Churchman would, for, despite New Eng- 
land influence, Christmas was to members of the 
'historic church more important than Thanks- 
giving. No member of a church household 
willingly remained away from the special service 
which, with the Sacrament, gave the day its high- 

estcharacter. The Christmas-eve service was 

178 



ST. PUMPKIN'S DAY AND CHRISTMAS 

of interest to many outside the flock. The dress- 
ing of evergreens and the windows lighted by 
rows of candles made an attraction irresistible to 
the meeting-house children who were allowed to 
attend this one church service of the year. 

If the snow lay deep or the roads were rough, 
ox-carts and sleds served as conveyances. On a 
bright Christmas morning when the white 
blanket of winter was spread over meadow, hill- 
side, and roadway, an ox-sled guarded at each 
side by an upright board, and seated with six 
kitchen chairs, placed two abreast, waited while 
Jube chose his best whip, and with many direc- 
tions settled in place the elder and the younger 
slaves. 'Mandy, with numberless cautions, left 
the fire and the closed oven-door to Moll's care, 
and with the little ones crowded about her kept 
a place for her mother-in-law still living at the 
house of Thaddeus. Master and mistress, with 
their own children, had led the way on horses, 
and thus the " keeping Christmas " was begun. 
It seemed to the children to have begun before, 
as there had been offerings made to the god of 
fire for days. The little hands wearied not in 

bringing in chips and kindlings to aid the bak- 

179 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

ing and the boiling, and the store-room door 
closed on a mine. Which of them could count 
the pies of mince and tart, of pumpkin, and 
apple, in long rows on the shelves, or measure 
the depths of the cider-apple-sauce in the big 
stone-pots? And there were meats ready for 
the carver, ham and tongue pink and tender, 
spare-ribs and chicken-pies, loaves of cake that 
showed crisped raisins, and an infinitude of cook- 
ies that, no matter how earnestly 'Mandy tried 
to hide the secret of their making, the opening 
of the oven-door always betrayed. 

Christmas, and Thanksgiving Day also (the 
latter called in derision by Churchmen St. Pomp- 
ion's, or St. Pumpkin's, Day), were the rallying 
days for families. As years flew by, the children 
of Daniel and Mary having settled in their own 
homes here and there, the younger households 
grew in numbers, and there were gay gatherings 
within the walls and under the roof, so elastic 
in its hospitality and measureless in its welcome. 
Ingenuity was often put to the test to place all 
remaining over the nights, and although the 
greater number arrived after the church ser- 
vice, and sought their own homes in the early 

iSo 



ST. PUMPKIN'S DAY AND CHRISTMAS 

or late evenings, those living remotely were sure 
of comfort. 

The long dining-table and small tables set 
in the corners of the room for the children, 
made a " board " groaning indeed with its 
plenitude, around which all stood with the 
hush of reverence while grace was said. The 
children's eyes shone as the young pig, roasted 
to a turn and bearing a red apple in his mouth, 
followed the boiled Indian pudding, of which 
sympathetic mothers had served them sparingly 
knowing there were daintier bits to follow, for 
no child properly trained might leave a portion 
uneaten. Eager appetites, but restrained hands, 
took thankfully all that was assigned of baked 
and boiled, stewed quinces and apple-sauce, 
pickled samphire and home-made cheese, pies 
and custards, while there was endless liberty 
afterward among the apples in the cellar and 
the nuts in the garret. 

The children played the games their fathers and 
mothers had played, and when evening prayers 
and the good-byes to those who lived near were 
said, then the old house spread its wide wings 
and the hours of silence found the beds and 

181 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

trundle-beds that had been well warmed by the 
long-handled brass warming-pan, all showing 
the forms of sleepers. Even the " cricket-bed- 
stead " — the old-time cot-bed made by two 
pairs of cross-pieces (French criquet) connected 
by poles and spread with heavy tow-cloth 
— that with one end tucked under 'Mandy's 
couch held usually one of her grandchildren, was 
pulled out at full length, and little woolly-heads 
at both ends proved the surrender of other rest- 
ing-places. For Esther had come from New- 
town with Philo, her husband, and Peg as aid 
and nurse to their little ones. 

When the children were safely drifted into the 
stream of sleep, the elders sat long before the 
glowing fires in affectionate and happy compan- 
ionship, and from the steaming punch-bowl 
drank to each other in good wishes for the 
future, then before separating, and all standing, 
they drank in silence " to the memory of the 

departed." 

182 



XXIII 
THE DAUGHTER'S EDUCATION 

Son after son coming of age had received a 
portion of land — the property qualification neces- 
sary to make him a voter — and, soon marrying, 
had settled on the hills near or far. Thaddeus in 
the grandfather's house, Benjamin on Booth's 
Hill, Jeremiah on Israel's Hill, William and 
Gershom on Grassy Hill, Esther in Newtown, 
left by the time Gloriana reached young lady- 
hood, only Isaiah at home and the younger 
brother Victory. 

Gloriana, in figure like her father, tall and 

slight, with brown hair and gray eyes, of bright 

mind and clear comprehension, had the pride, 

the aspirations, and the day-dreams of most 

young girls. As at Esther's marriage she was 

but ten years old, she had grown up as the only 

daughter of the household, her father's especial 

183 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

pride and delight, and the only daughter of a 
man of wealth might well expect a good share 
of the opportunities of life, and a gratification of 
such desires as stirred her ambition or her fancy. 
But travel was arduous and not undertaken save 
for necessity. An occasional ride in the saddle to 
Stratford or Newtown, and possibly once in a 
year or two to New Haven, made the farthest 
bound of outings. The interest of one's environ- 
ment sufficed in large measure, and there was 
little printed record to stir a desire for journey- 
ings for the mere sake of so doing. 

The business interests of the inland families 
were still effectively served by the able cap- 
tains. Marketable products of all kinds, candles 
and tow-cloth, beeswax, and flaxseed, goose- 
quills by the hundred and hogs' bristles by the 
pound, shoe-thread and feathers as well as fruits, 
vegetables, salted meats, and cider, were con- 
signed with confidence to Robert Moore, cap- 
tain of the schooner Sea-cow, and the other 
captains at The Landing, Ripton's seaport, or 
to those who sailed from The Narrows at Derby, 
or from the Pequonnock. 

Remote from the competitive centres as the 

184 



THE DAUGHTER'S EDUCATION 

life was, its standard was never lowered, and 
Daniel himself being counted " very dressy," had 
an eye to whatever might reasonably be obtained 
for personal adornment for wife and daughter, 
as well as for himself, and kept some pace with 
the novelties in house-furnishing. England had 
begun manufacturing pottery and porcelain, 
and, although the neighbors feared lest the hard 
surface should dull the edges of the knives, they 
could not withhold their envy and admiration 
for the dark-blue and white Spode dinner- 
service. It was at first reserved for state oc- 
casions, but ere long supplanted pewter on 
the master's table, sending the latter to the 
slaves' kitchen to take the place of wooden 
plates. 

Rag-carpets had been evolved from the brain 
of some inventive weaver, and while an ingrain 
carpet honored the parlor, strips, or whole cov- 
erings of " hit-or-miss " rag-carpet gradually 
swept the sand from the other floors. The par- 
lor gloried in a wall-paper of rich floral pattern, 
and later in a mirror with a wide all-gilt frame, 
and four blue and white vases for the mantel- 
piece completed its adornment. Glass-ware be- 

185 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

came common, and wash-bowls and pitchers of 
blue and white English pottery were a marked 
advance over the coarse earthen-ware, and the 
pewter, brass, and wooden basins of earlier use. 
Mary was indulged in a black satin cardinal 
cloak, " 7 yards of black satin at 8/6 a yard, 
2- 3 / 4 - 1 / 8 yards of black Persian for lining at 
9/," to which was added a wide lace to trim the 
collar. 

There were as yet no boarding-schools, and 
Gloriana had but the advantages of the district- 
school, and the singing-school held every winter 
in the evenings in the little school-house, one of 
the regular pleasures, both social and musical, 
for the young people. All learned to read music, 
Andrew Law's " Rudiments of Music " being 
the usual text-book. The selections were chiefly 
hymns and anthems, and the preliminary instruc- 
tion gave the pronunciation of the notes " faw," 
" law," etc., also the admonition, " the principal 
thing in singing is to have the heart deeply ef- 
fected by the great truth matter in our melody, 
that it be done with solemnity, and due rever- 
ence before the Judge of quick and dead." 

As there was little of the outer world by which 

186 



THE DAUGHTER'S EDUCATION 

to measure themselves, there was bred in these 
isolated communities a spirit of repose and con- 
tent, ambition never slumbering-, but free from 
restlessness. Youth, as always, found its pleas- 
ure in frequent meetings for dancing, riding, 
boating, and the strolls and visits ever dear. The 
semi-annual " Trainings " were the great excite- 
ment, full of life and bustle, and a chance for 
meeting strangers. Ripton had its ball-room, 
and the great Leavenworth house down by t'he 
river ' was a centre for pleasure. The older 
house, " the mansion," built by Dr. Thomas 
Leavenworth in 1685, was wonderfully adorned 
with hangings of arras and other articles of value 
brought by him from England. In 1778 his 
grandson, Gideon Leavenworth, built the red 
house, and to it some of the hangings were re- 
moved. This ambitious and enterprising builder 
and ship-owner brought from New York in one 
of his vessels a Frenchman who frescoed the 
parlor in fine arabesque pattern, painting also 
the family coat-of-arms on the chimney-breast. 
In the upper story of this house was a ball-room, 
for Mr. Leavenworth having several daughters, 

desired to make his house a centre for pleasure, 

187 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

the " balls " being simply dancing-parties as al- 
ways, more exclusive than public balls. 

Mary herself, fond of social pleasures, was ever 
ready for any festivity, and also to mount her 
horse and canter off for a friendly visit. Cousin 
Charity's house was one goal and Hepzibah's 
another, the visits growing in value as the years 
passed, and friendship proved its strength, but 
if she saw the traces of years on her friends, she 
was herself, in feeling and activity, as young as 
when she first came to reign over the great 
house. 

The Tories were slow in coming into public 
office, but those who had been prominent in 
the days of warfare were so now in the days of 
peace. Captain Beach was a member of the 
legislature at Hartford, and Charity, accompany- 
ing him there, gave opportunity for the painting 
of their portraits by an English artist, who faith- 
fully reproduced the elderly but still handsome 
captain, with his high collar and ruffled s'hirt, 
and his queenly Charity in gown of brown satin, 
white cap, and kerchief, and the double row of 
gold beads she had worn since her marriage. 
These finely painted portraits, and those of 

188 



THE DAUGHTER'S EDUCATION 

Squire Mills and his wife, at Ripton, by the same 
hand, moved the neighborhood to a high state 
of interest and excitement, for whatever one or 
another brought from busier centres was freely 
exhibited, and was the subject of comment, or 
approval, perhaps of envy. 

The very small " tea-dishes " of Mary's mar- 
riage were supplemented by those of newer pat- 
tern, set with a wreath of flowers about the brim. 
The cups and saucers had grown larger, custard- 
cups with handles had appeared, and tea-sets of 
black Wedgwood were sometimes to be had at 
the store of Squire Mills in Ripton, which had 
long been of wide reputation and included every- 
thing needed for house or farm, for master or 
servant, for food or clothing. 

By 1786, The New Haven Gazette and Connecti- 
cut Magazine began to find its way to the hills 
regularly, William Carpenter, the post-rider, de- 
livering it at appointed stations. Such easy and 
frequent contact with the world beyond marked 
an epoch, and the eight pages, each about twelve 
inches square, published at 9/ per annum, were 
thoroughly read and digested, the advertisements 

of various kinds being of increasing interest. 

189 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

No matter how important are affairs of state, per- 
sonality is attractive, and even if it is strangers 
that advertise — " Stolen in New Haven a white 
satin cloak (woman's) lined with light blue Per- 
sian, trimmed with white thread lace " — " Lost 
out of saddle-bags black taffety sack and petti- 
coat, claret-colored taffety and a crimson colored 
miffinet gown " — that feeling is stirred that 

makes the whole world kin. 

190 



XXIV 

YOUNG LADYHOOD 

Stratford village, the home of maternal 
grandparents and numberless kindred, could add 
much to the gayety of a girl's life, and Gloriana 
knew well what pleasure she might find at Lazy 
Bank, in Tea-party Lane, and all up and down 
the wide street from Paradise Green to Sandy 
Hollow. Here she met her first lover, who, ere 
she was seventeen, had gone so far in his court- 
ing as to write to her with better fervor than 
orthography, with a flourish of capitals and exal- 
tation of feeling, the latter serving to entangle 
expression and to prove his youth. The letter, 
with signature carefully cut out, has been thus 

long preserved. 

Stratford, March 22nd, 1788. 

Dr. Miss. 

Since our last happy meeting it's with pleas- 
ure I inform you that I have enjoyed my health 

191 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

as usual, hoping these to find you in the like 
situation. O Gloriana may that Last happy time 
with the blessing of God, When I had those En- 
dearing sentiments of your soul Bestowed upon 
me Add lasting happiness to that striking Object 
of Which I [signature cut out renders a few words 
illegible]. But oh, let not the little Distance 
we are appart deprive us of Each other — with 
a pleasing melancholy this letter takes place in- 
stead of my person. But as it's the lott of many 
must submitt, hoping the little Vacation Between 
our personal Appearance to wear away when I 
may Embrace that happy moment in Being with 
a long & absent friend — and Could wish that our 
absence may add Lasting friendship to our 
future happiness. The subject on which we talkt 
of is firmly established & only your Complyance 
wanting to Compleat our happiness. Your 
Countenance Actions and lovely features is not 
out of my mind one moment and as you have the 
charge of my heart you'l hold it sacred on my 
account. As this Bosom Pin is prickt through 
this letter so I hope your heart Linkt in with 
mine and hope will be as lasting as Abraham & 

Abdely who lived in perfect peace and harmony. 

192 



YOUNG LADYHOOD 

Writing and Receiving of Letters Especially 
from a friend is Very Beneficial. But to Re- 
ceive one from your Ladyship I shall esteem as 
heaven's blessing. But either by meeting per- 
sonally or by letters would be the means of Re- 
viving that little acquaintance which I have had 
with you, and to support a Correspondence 
which if it should prove otherways would be an 
Embarrassment not small. 

I have nothing more to advise of at present 
only that all friends are well and my Comply- 
ments to all yours. I hope to see you soon As 
I cannot live so Abstemious a life, so after wish- 
ing you all the happiness this world Can afford, 
which I expect you'l let me have a little share of, 
I in the interim of time Remain your Ever Af- 
fectionate friend & Lover 



N.B. An Answer from you by the same 
Bearer would be Convayd with safety — which I 
shall expect. 

So no more at present." 

The large time-yellowed sheet still shows 

where a long pin had been " prickt " through it, 

193 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

and undoubtedly treasured as well as the letter, 
even though the youth built on too slight a 
foundation, for after a time the correspondence 
ceased, and Gloriana finding life full of pleasure, 
felt no haste to enter into matrimony. When 
she sat at her chamber-window facing the 
sunset, putting fine even stitches in her em- 
broidery, she pondered on this lover and that, 
and though their little gifts might be treasured, 
and the letters well conned, there was but " nay " 
to answer. 

There was great readiness to take up a pen, 
and frequent opportunity to send a letter by 
hand of passing friend or neighbor; girls who 
found each other congenial were quick to bridge 
the separating distance by frequent communica- 
tions, and interchange of confidences. Down 
in Oronoque, on the way to Stratford, a fine 
old house still remembered, was named by the 
romantic daughter for Petrarch's home in 
France, Vaucluse, and the girl's letters bore that 
heading. Gloriana's dearest girl-friend, however, 
was a Miss Patty, of North Stratford, and even if 
they met with much regularity on Sundays, 

there was always something to be said on week- 

194 



YOUNG LADYHOOD 

days. Miss Patty thus begins the correspond- 
ence: 

" With pleasure do I dedicate these spare 
moments to the Sweet converse with my much 
esteemed friend — for when I take a Retrospect- 
ive vew of the past year of pleasure & improve- 
ment I have enjoyed in your company I flatter 
myself the pleasing Anticipation of an agreeable 
& happy Correspondence to be commenced and 
when commenced I hope it may be long continued 
and promoted. I s'hould be glad to know how 
you spent your time or who with a-Training — 
we spent our time very agreeable — there was all- 
most every Lad here from Danbury — I am cer- 
tain had you been here your heart would have 
been pierced if it had not been Marble — I hope 
to see you at Church Sunday if nothing happens 
more than I expect I shall be there. " Good by 
from her who never ceases to admire you & is 
by every sentiment of humanity " yours in es- 
teem and friendship 

Patty. 

P.S. Love to all." 

Over more than a century has drifted down- 
ward some of Miss Patty's confidences, frag- 

195 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

mentary, but giving their evidence of the one- 
ness of humanity, however the age and environ- 
ment may differ: 

1788. 

Dear Miss. 

Yours of Sunday evening lies before me. It 

is an old observation that it " is much easier to 

continue a Correspondence than to begin one." 

I fully join with you as to the absence of Ideas 

in the first forming acquaintance; this obstacle 

being now Removed I hope for the future all 

letters may follow the fate of the first. 

I am exceedingly fond of Corresponding with 

both Gentlemen and Ladies, particularly the lat- 
ter and still more especially those possessed 
of the first and Richest of Heaven's gifts: — A 
Susceptible Heart! The Breast that can feel for 
another's woes; the eye that can glisten with 
another's sorrows; the mind that can sympa- 
thize in a stranger's adversity or participate in 
their pleasure, is as much superior to a Bosom 
of Common feelings as the charm of the "... 



It is a source of regret that but this fragment 

196 



YOUNG LADYHOOD 

remains, for the finale must have stirred Miss 
Patty deeply. All her correspondents were not 
equally fervent. One addressing her with no 
formal beginning wrote: 

" Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor's 
house, lest he grow weary " Saith the Scripture. 
" Withdraw thy foot " Replies the feelings to 
a too frequent visitor. I look down street every 
night wishing to see you, but I am at your house 
quite too often, I know I am, for a stranger. I 
conclude some of the Ladies are not very anx- 
ious to See me. I Remember one of them told 
me she would let me know when they visited 
Miss Eunice Curtiss, I was not admitted last 
Monday even, — however, all one tomorrow. 

But to tell you the truth! I have not Seen 

a well Day for near a fortnight and whether 

ever I shall again or not is uncertain. But I am 

prepared for almost everything; lightly esteem 

this world. I think I have some desire to sail 

upon a star. I have chosen mine, I view it every 

clear night, I contemplate futurity, there is 

something very pleasing to me in the tho'ts of 

a future existence that I can fully let go all 

finite enjoyments: forgive me I am in a thought- 

197 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

ful mood this morning — you well know I am 
fond of Your Correspondence. 

Yours this 29th Day 

T. M. 

The marriage of Isaiah left only the younger 

Victory at home with Gloriana, but the maiden 

never lacked " a squire " when festivities called 

out pleasure-lovers, and, in her fine gowns of 

pearl-gray and peach-blow satin, the tall girl 

failed not of observation. The slippers worn 

with those rich gowns were of the same satin, 

and there were others of black kid bound with 

deep yellow, the very pointed toes wrought with 

beads and spangles. All travelling was still on 

saddle and pillion, and the ride to Ripton 

church, was with a fine gown pinned up about the 

waist, and covered with a dust-cloth. Long mitts 

covered the bare arms and the hands that held 

the prayer-book bound in red and gold morocco. 

Besides the service of the sanctuary there was 

the usual chance for friendly meetings, the 

luncheon at a kinsman's house, the strolling 

among the graves in the churchyard, reading 

for the hundredth time that outlet for the re- 

198 



YOUNG LADYHOOD 

pressed feeling of the day — the sentimental verse 
inscribed on the tombstone — and the oppor- 
tunity to give a bashful swain a few words that 

might prove a sweet cud for his meditation. 

199 



XXV 

BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS 

By the PRESIDENT 
of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

A Proclamation. 

Whereas it is the Duty of all Nations to ac- 
knowledge the Providence of Almighty God, 
to obey his will, to be grateful for his Benefits, 
and humbly to implore his Protection and 
Favor; And whereas both Houses of Congress 
have, by their joint Committee, requested me 
" To recommend to the People of the United 
States a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer 
to be observed by acknowledging with grateful 
Hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty 
God especially by affording them an Opportu- 
nity peaceably to establish a Form of Govern- 
ment for their Safety and Happiness," 

Now therefore, I do recommend and assign 

200 



BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS 

Thursday, the Twenty-sixth Day of November 
next to be devoted by the People of these States 
to the service of that great and glorious Being, 
who is the benificent Author of all the good that 
was, that is, or that will be: 

That we may then all unite in rendering unto 
Him our sincere and humble Thanksgiving for 
his kind Care and Protection of the People of 
this Country previous to their becoming a Na- 
tion; for the signal and manifold Mercies and 
the favorable Interpositions of his Providence 
in the Course and Conclusion of the late war; 
for the great Degree of Tranquility, Union, and 
Plenty, which we have since enjoyed; for the 
peaceable and rational Manner in which we have 
been enabled to establish Constitutions of Gov- 
ernment for our Safety and Happiness, and par- 
ticularly the national one now lately insti- 
tuted; — for the civil and religious Liberty with 
which we are blessed, and the Means we have of 
acquiring and diffusing useful Knowledge; — and 
in general for all the great and various Favors 
which he hath been pleased to confer upon us. 

And also, That we may then unite in most 
humbly offering our Prayers and Supplications 

201 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and be- 
seech him to pardon our national and other 
Transgressions; to enable us all, whether in pub- 
lic or private Stations, to perform our several 
and relative Duties properly and punctually; — 
to render our national Government a Blessing to 
all the People by constantly being a Government 
of wise, just, and Constitutional Laws, discreetly 
and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect 
and guide all Sovereigns and Nations, (espe- 
cially such as have shown kindness unto us) and 
to bless them with good Government, Peace, 
and Concord; to promote the Knowledge and 
Practice of true Religion and Virtue, and the 
Encrease of Science among them and us; and 
generally to grant unto all Mankind such a De- 
gree of temporal Prosperity as he alone knows 
to be best. 

Given under my Hand at the City of New 
York, the third Day of October in the Year of 
our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and 

Eighty-nine. 

G. Washington." 

As this was read in all the churches on the 
following Sunday, even those whose sympathies 

202 



BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS 

had not been with the war could enter into its 
spirit with sincerity, the manifold blessings of 
peace and an established government moving all 
to rejoicing and gratitude. The clouds that had 
darkened the dawning of the new nation's life 
were finally dispelled, and its sun had risen in a 
clearer sky. 

The year 1789 proved a memorable one for 
Ripton; asserting its independence of Stratford, 
it became a town, naming itself with patriotic en- 
thusiasm for one of the signers of the Declara- 
tion of Independence and the Governor of the 
State, " Huntington. " But with all the pride 
in the present, the old name dear to so many, 
and that came " more trippingly on the tongue," 
lingered in common usage, and even after a 
hundred years have passed it is still uttered, 
bearing to those who use it an association reach- 
ing back to the older days and people, the oldest 
homes and graves. 

Ripton was worthy of honor, sending out to 
the greater world illustrious sons and daugh- 
ters, to fill places of power in the great cities, to 
found new communities in the ever-opening 

" West," to drift as does the soil from the hill- 

203 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

sides to the valleys, enchaining the rivers, and 
enriching the world with the power of water as 
the fathers had with the power of land. Some 
remained on the ancestral acres, firm ground 
for the growth of true manhood and loyal citi- 
zenship, of sturdy principles, of valor and 
strength, that would again be at the nation's 
service, even those whose hearts turned formerly 
to the King bidding a son God-speed to aid the 
war of 1812. 

After Victory's marriage Gloriana was left 
alone with her parents. The large estate was 
greatly diminished by setting off to the various 
sons their portions, and the slaves, suffering also 
by division and somewhat by death, were fewer. 
But it was still a house of plenty, of comfort, of 
hospitality, with a coming and going that made 
the remote life full of variety. Of occupation 
there was no limit. A girl had always the free- 
dom of spinning all she would, and the woven 
product was hers. No maiden properly brought 
up would think herself prepared to marry until 
she had at least ten pairs of linen sheets and had 
knitted a pillow-case full of stockings. Linen 

was woven a yard wide, and in such length that, 

204 



BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS 

cut in two and sewed together, the "web" would 
make a sheet. After leaving the loom it must be 
bleached. The bleaching-ground was east of the 
house, where the wide level reaches over to its 
rocky abutment, and there, under the May sun, 
the linen, fastened by tapes at the corners to 
pegs driven in the ground, was first well 
sprinkled with weak lye and then with water 
several times daily, until it seemed a veritable 
snowdrift on the short grass. A new design in 
weaving, called " Stratford Beauty," which 
maids and matrons went wild over, originated 
with Silas Burton. There was always a choice 
of " weaves " — basket, diaper, and bird's-eye, for 
none wished to be behind the fashion. Coins 
were also a part of a girl's accumulation that 
they might be converted into spoons, against the 
day when she should preside at her own table. 

Gloriana watched the bleaching of her linen 
May after May, delighting in its fineness and 
whiteness, even sometimes sending flax to the 
pond in Stratford to be rotted, as the result 
was whiter if that process took place in salt 
water. She had a supply of blankets also, white 

and blue and yellow plaids, almost a decoration 

205 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

in themselves. She grew very proud of her store, 
overflowing from one chest to another, all care- 
fully hemmed and marked in fine cross-stitch 
with her initials, each initial being followed by as 
many small dots as would complete the letters of 
the name. 

The increase of periodicals was valued. A 
new commercial centre called Newneld started 
in Stratford at the mouth of the Pequonnock. 
Thither went merchants from the interior, and 
enterprise soon formed the nucleus of the 
future city of Bridgeport. A new paper, called, 
prophetically, it seems, The American Tele- 
graph, was put forth, and its items and adver- 
tisements were eagerly sought. Newfield 
represented home interests much more than 
New Haven, but even though The Telegraph 
might reprint a letter from Calcutta, news from 
the ships in the Mediterranean, and records of 
various countries, personal interest was touched 
by the fact that " Geese in public pound are to be 
sold in 24 hours after advertising on public sign- 
post. Rate of poundage for each Goose Two 
cents, whereof three quarters to the impounders 

and one quarter to the Key-keeper." Runa- 

206 



BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS 

way negroes, articles lost and found, and the 
household necessaries advertised for sale, were 
important. Marriages and deaths were not 
grouped, but tucked anywhere in the corners. 
Books were largely advertised: " Calvinism Im- 
proved or the Gospel Illustrated as a system of 
Real Grace, issuing in the Salvation of All Men." 
A review of the book in the following issue as- 
sured the possible readers that " the style is neat, 
easy and perspicuous." The name of Tom Paine 
had come to be synonymous with all horrors, 
and some one advertised: " In despite of Deism, 
Tom Paine and the Devil the following very 
valuable book is offered for sale, The Pious Chris- 
tian" 

The New York Weekly Museum, four small 
pages published at a dollar and a half a year, 
gave news of the greater seaport, and, ere a con- 
signment of the land's resources was shipped, a 
careful list could be made from its tempting col- 
umns. Gilt Writing Paper was for sale at the 
Magazine Store near the Tea-Water Pump. 
John Harrisson's Book Shop at Peck Slip — 
much of the shopping was at Peck Slip — offered 

" The Ladies' Friend, being a Treatise on the 

207 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

Virtues and Qualifications which are the Bright- 
est Ornaments of the Fair Sex and render them 
most agreeable to the sensible part of man- 
kind. " The Museum gave also a glimpse of the 
world beyond, unattainable, save in imagination: 

" TO THE CURIOUS. 

A BEAUTIFUL AFRICAN LION 
To be seen every day, Sundays excepted, at the Ball alley 
in the Fields next to the corner of Murray Street in 
Broadway. 

" He was caught in the woods of Goree in Africa, when 
a whelp and brought from thence to New York." 



"THEATRE. 

King Richard III by the Old American Company. 
" Doors open a Quarter after Four and the curtain 
drawn up a Quarter after Six o'clock. Box &s., Pit 6s. , 
Gallery 4s." 



"A Morning School, 26 Veasy S 

"Young Ladies only will be admitted; his time of at- 
tendance will be from 6 to 8 o'clock. Reading, Writing, 
Arithmetic and Geography will be principally attended to 
(or either of them). Other branches if desired." 

Or more desirable might be 

"ATTENTION!!! YOUNG LADIES. 

At no. 60 Catharine St., Are taught the following 
branches of Education to Youth of both Sexes, vix, 
Reading, Wrighting, Arithmetic, English Grammer, Latin 

208 



BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS 

and Greek, Geography, Composition, Speaking, Naviga- 
tion, Guaging, Surveying, Mensuration, Book-Keeping 
and Tambouring to Young Ladies on the most reason- 
able terms; also an Evening School is now open for 
Young Men and Apprentices. Poor Girls are taught 
Gratis on Sabbath Days." 

The Museum had ways of its own. Selected 
verse was grouped under the head " Court of 
Apollo; " marriages under "Court of Hymen; " 
while deaths were classed as " Melancholy," and 
when the tidings of Robert Burns' death was 
recorded, the universal regret was expressed by: 

" The Muses droop 
Genius unprop'd begins to stoop 
Her bard is gone." 

There were tailors, milliners, hair-dressers, 

mantua-makers offering novelties, and also 

shops that advertised dress-goods, jewellery, 

household goods, etc., and among more serious 

matters the verse: 

" A wedding's a wedding the universe over 
From Pekin to London, from Turkey to Dover, 
Married folks are the same wherever they're born 
From the Cape of Good Hope till you double Cape 
Horn." 

The year 1796 marked a new venture in peri- 
odicals and one number, perhaps the only one 

209 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

that reached it, has come down from the old 
house. It is 4 by 7 inches in size and of two 
dozen pages: 

"THIS DAY is published 

(Price 25 cents) 

No II of the 

Lady & Gentleman's 

Pocket Magazine 

of 

Literary & Polite Amusement 

New York 

Printed by John Tiebout No. 358 Pearl St. 

1796." 

The contents are classified in Biographiana, 
Scrapiana, Tales, Travels, Select Poetry, Mar- 
riages, and Deaths, a note on the back cover 
saying, " A Box is placed in the window under 
Homer's head no. 358 Pearl Street for the recep- 
tion of notes from correspondents &c," and else- 
where the end of this century seems anticipated 
by a notice: 'Those who procure twelve sub- 
scribers will receive a thirteenth copy gratis." 

The " book-closet " increased in wealth and 

variety. " The Stories of Sindbad and Aladdin," 

" The History of Miss Betsey Thoughtless," 

" Theodore; or, the Gamester's Progress," 

" Charlotte Temple," " The Coquette; or, the 

210 



BOOKS AND NEWSPAPERS 

History of Eliza Wharton, a Novel Founded on 
Fact," and others, lightened the heavier reading 
of " Exercises of the Heart, by the Late Pious 
and Ingenious Mrs.Rowe," "Lockhart's History 
of Scotland," "Josephus," and the serious books 
of the day. The usual bent, however, was for 
improving literature, and the long sentences of 
involved thought then in fashion were enjoyed. 
Green's Annual Register, although only 4 by 6 
inches in size, was a mine of information. In 
addition to the regular almanac, its weather 
predictions interspersed with moral sayings, 
" Life is \ spent before we know what it is to 
live," historical records, saints' days, col- 
lege commencement and other dates, it gave 
the rulers of all countries, the public officers of 
this country, with all those in every capacity in 
the State, roads, tables of interest, values of for- 
eign coins, and the relative values of New Eng- 
land, New York, and the Carolina currencies; in 
fact, answering almost every question of an in- 
quiring mind. 

Thus the touch was kept with things remote, 
feeling was stirred with sympathy, with ambi- 
tion, with mutual interests; patriotism grew in 

211 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

hearts that had doubted as firmly as in those 

that saw with clearer vision, and when, on July 

4, 1795, there being then fifteen States admitted 

to the Union, the corner-stone for the State 

House in Boston was drawn into place by fifteen 

white horses, amid great rejoicing, the echo 

thereof might have been heard throughout New 

England. 

212 



XXVI 

YOUTH AND AGE 

Dr. Jenner had not as yet blessed the world 
with the discovery of the value of vaccination, 
and small-pox was the great dread of the day. 
In 1777 six hundred persons were ill with it at 
one time in Stratford township, and " fear is a 
burned child! " The positive horror felt for the 
disease was so great that the treatment of the 
unfortunate victims seemed almost inhuman, 
save that there was no other way known to avoid 
danger. A student, obliged to leave Yale College 
because of illness, found his weary way to a native 
hill-top, and, on arriving, the dreaded symptoms 
having developed and his parents not being 
alive, he was allowed no refuge but an old barn, 
dying there after scant care, and, as was cus- 
tomary, was buried at midnight. Pest-houses 

were established, where a person exposed to the 

213 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

disease must retreat, and, even when he returned 
home cured, he could not be allowed to enter his 
own house for some days, but must sleep in an 
outbuilding until the fear of contagion had 
worn off. Inoculation began to be practised, 
the virus being taken from a human being, not, 
as by Jenner, from the cow, and giving " the 
genuine, not the kine-pox." Notices of the es- 
tablishment of pest-houses were published: 

" Inoculation." 

"The Authority & Select Men of Fairfield 
having again appointed the House now occu- 
pied by Capt. Nathan Adams for Inoculation, the 
subscriber proposes to receive Patients therein, 
from this date to the last of April next. And as 
no one died of inoculation last year, as no one 
was dangerous, as no one had it the natural 
way after inoculation, and as no one gave it to 
any person after they left the Pest-House, he 
thinks it will be a sufficient encouragement for 
those who wish to have the Small Pox this sea- 
son to put themselves under his care. 

HOSEA HURLBERT. 
Greenfield, January nth, 1797." 

214 



YOUTH AND AGE 

In 1799 Ripton — or Huntington — issued a 
declaration: 

" Whereas two thirds of the Inhabitants Le- 
gally assembled in Town meeting in Hunting- 
ton . . . Voted that they gave Liberty for the 
Inoculation of the Small-Pox ... In conse- 
quence of which, we the Major Part of the Civil 
Authority and Select Men upon the appli- 
cation of and other inhabitants of said 

Huntington Do Grant Permission for the 

Small-Pox to be communicated by Inoculation 
at the following houses set apart for the Purpose 
and they are strictly required to pay Care- 
ful attention to, and be Intirely under the Order, 
Rules, and Regulations to wit: — 

istly. (Setting apart certain houses.) 

2ndly. (Appointing Doctors for the Houses 
with Tenders and Nurses.) 

3rdly. We do further order that no Person 
or Persons who may receive the Small-Pox by 
Inoculation and Enter said Houses, and during 
his, her, or their continuance there may not go 
more than fifteen rods from said Houses Sev- 
erally, and the Nurses and Tenders are to ob- 

215 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

serve the same rule, and said Nurses and Tend- 
ers are Directed to have a well-loaded musket 
while at said Houses and to kill every Dog & 
Cat that shall come within gunshot of said 
houses." 

4thly. (Directions for disinfecting.) 
5thly. (Forbidding persons having heretofore 
had the Small-Pox from going within certain 
distance.) 

6th. (Committee for disinfecting.) 
7th. (Forbidding all Persons to receive In- 
oculation except under above rules.) 

N.B. (Certain repetitions of above and the 
order to make four copies of this act one for each 
Pest-House . nd one to be set on each of two 
public signposts.)" 

Duly signed by Civil Authority, etc. 

This process produced a mild type of small- 
pox, very rarely proving fatal, and Gloriana, like 
many others, sought relief from the ever-present 
fear by entering the pest-house, enduring the 
discomfort, isolation, and confinement, for the 
sake of the relief to herself and others. 

The last sands of the century were running 

216 



YOUTH AND AGE 

out when the earthly life dearest to American 
hearts came to an end. The boys in all the 
school-houses wore crape on their left arms for 
six months, in memory of Washington, who was 
" above all Greek, above all Roman fame," and 
who had proved the nation's hope, piloting her 
through the worst storms, and gaining for her 
a firm anchorage. New days were to come, a 
new century was near, and the training through 
struggle and difficulty had fitted many for the 
present duties. The young navy was bearing it- 
self bravely, and there was a settling into place, 
while the eye looked with steady gaze into the 
future. States and statesmen gave proud alle- 
giance, and the nation proved her power. 

In 1801 Gloriana reached the age of thirty, 
quite an advanced one for a single woman, and 
still no suitor had appeared whom she would 
favor. But the new century had lost but 
a few of its years when she met in Derby 
a widower about her own age, whose suit 
was duly approved. In addition to the fact 
that he pleased her fancy, and was well-es- 
teemed, she weighed others. He had recently 

bought a comfortable house, he was a merchant, 

217 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

he lived in a town, and she could walk to church! 
Having lived always four miles from the Centre, 
the base for supplies, material and spiritual, there 
was a strong power in the thought of being in 
the midst of things and within short walking 
distance of the greatest of all desires and attrac- 
tions. Mere romance had had its day, and the 
weightier side of a new life was considered, re- 
sulting in Gloriana's being transplanted from 
hill-top to valley, from comparative isolation to 
the variety and activity of a town with its social 
and business interests, its river and shipping, 
and its contact with neighbors separated, not 
by long acres or steep hill-sides, but by door- 
yards. 

The old house, nearing its " latitude 50 ," 
felt a delightful flutter in renewing its youth, 
and in again preparing for a wedding. Glori- 
ana's chests were full indeed. They held no less 
than thirty pairs of linen sheets, with towels and 
table linen, blankets and coverlids, curtains, and 
valances in profusion. Nor was the quota of 
stockings lacking, nor the linen underclothing, 
gowns and petticoats, scarfs and riding-cloaks, 

or whatever was of use, of fashion, or of heart's 

218 



YOUTH AND AGE 

desire. Calico was very expensive, therefore 
more to be desired than satin. The wedding- 
gown of India calico, a dark blue ground spread 
with gold-colored flowers, was short-waisted and 
long-sleeved, with the skirt puckered on the belt 
in the most approved style. 

For furnishings also the latest patterns must 
be had. There was a long sideboard on slim 
legs, with curving front and rich brasses, its 
pretty cupboard stocked with tea-dishes, finely 
fluted decanters and wineglasses. A gilded 
eagle rested on top of the parlor mirror, which 
reflected the vases and candlesticks on the man- 
telpiece. There were spindle-legged tables and 
fiddle-back chairs, and those of newer style 
painted black, with gilt scroll-work. For her 
own apartment there was an " escritoire," really 
a chest of drawers, the front of the upper drawer 
letting down on hinges to serve for a desk. 
This fine piece of work in cherry was inlaid with 
holly in little shields and fine lines, and the 
brasses, chosen with care, were ever a lesson to 
a good mother and housewife, the back-plate 
of each handle showing a bee-hive and the motto 

" Nothing without labor." 

219 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

Then there were small, square washstands, 
pier-foot tables, swell-front bureaus, long mir- 
rors with inlaid frames, or small oval ones 
swinging over a shallow drawer set on the dress- 
ing-table. And there were bedsteads with 
arched canopy-frames, to be hung with figured 
calico, chintz, or checkered linen, and window 
curtains of the same, all bordered with fringe of 
netting and tassels. 

The neighbors, making their formal or friendly 
visits, always welcomed an opportunity to ex- 
amine the fine Chinese and English ware, the 
large platters and open dishes of white, edged 
with a fringe of green, the more common blue 
and white willow pattern, mugs and odd plates 
from India, and a few bits of Wedgwood. Tea- 
spoons were still small and light, but table- 
spoons were heavy and rich in decoration. 
Tankards had gone out of fashion, and china 
charmed the eye for the tea-service. Gloriana's 
predecessor had left a daughter and two sons; 
the daughter, Zerviah, grown to attractive young 
maidenhood, had " a beau," the captain of a 
merchant vessel sailing for China, and by him 
Gloriana sent for her best tea-set, which, duly 

220 



YOUTH AND AGE 

arriving, when unpacked from its nest of tow 
revealed coffee- and tea-dishes, helmet pitcher, 
sugar- and slop-bowls, tea-caddy and cake plates, 
all decorated with a border of gold stars, each 
piece bearing a finely painted eagle holding the 
American shield inscribed with Gloriana's ini- 
tials. Delicate in quality and fine in workman- 
ship, this tea-set was the marvel of the neigh- 
borhood. Others had come in a similar way, but 
no other so fine had appeared, and the tea- 
parties at which it figured were long remem- 
bered. 

Gloriana's husband was part owner in a sloop 
in which he went to New York to make pur- 
chases for his store. This afforded opportunity 
for Gloriana to visit the great city, and also to 
discover and secure rare articles of various 
kinds. It was a novel experience to sail down 
the beautiful river winding among the hills, then 
to run out on the wide Sound, and skirt its 
shores all the way to Hell Gate. The uncer- 
tainty of wind made the voyage variable, it hav- 
ing been made in ten hours and again requiring 
ten days. 

The distance of the new home from the old 

221 



THE SALT-EOX HOUSE 

one on the hills was hardly half a dozen miles, 
and the active father and mother often covered 
it, while Gloriana herself thought little of the 
journey in the saddle. And Gloriana was able 
to gratify the desire that her child should be born 
under her father's roof. Charming as she found 
town life, the frequent passers-by, the neighbor- 
liness of those whose gardens adjoined hers 
and the frequent informal chats over the palings, 
her deep love was for the home of her 
youth set against the sky. The house her 
husband had purchased shortly before her mar- 
riage was a pleasant one, but a step or two 
from the street, fine-growing elms shadowed it, 
and within the fence periwinkle spread its 
green leaves close up to the house walls, and 
around the ro^ts of syringa and lilac bushes. 
The front door led from a small porch and wide 
door-stone into a square entry, or " space-way," 
from which parlor and dining-room opened. 
The front door itself, cut in two horizontally, 
mig^ht let the upper or knocker half swing back 
(sure sign that the hostess was at home), while 
the closed lower part stayed a possible intruder. 
The hospitality of the day and the pleasure 

222 



YOUTH AND AGE 

of frequent visitors, set the whole door wide open 
when the weather permitted, and the large wool- 
wheel being set in the space-way, Gloriana in 
her afternoon gown of mull or " taffety," and 
apron of fine cambric or muslin, stepped back 
and forth, back and forth, on the sanded floor, 
spinning soft, white yarn. Or sitting by her 
chamber window overlooking the street, whence 
she could give a nod or a word to those going 
or coming, she embroidered little caps, sleeves 
of fine linen-cambric shirts, and dainty little 
white slips, or set her hand to more practical 
stitches. 

The life of the newly-married, when it involves 
the mothering of a grown-up daughter, and of 
sons making ready to go out into the world, is 
not all romance, and a ready head and hand were 
required for all their needs, mental and material. 
Zerviah soon married, passing out in great meas- 
ure from the step-mother's life; the sons also 
grew vigorous and capable, taking their places 
in the outer world, filling them ably, and testify- 
ing in other States to the value and stability of 
New England training. 

Gloriana's only child first met this life as she 

223 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

desired, under the free air of the high hills and 
the roof of her ancestors. Clannishness was 
characteristic of many of those whose descent 
was from the best class of the early settlers. The 
pride of rank, though rank itself was not, was 
often retained, even in poverty, to an extent 
unintelligible to those who cared not for its dis- 
tinctions. It was not in the least an arrogance 
of bearing, but a sense of birth, which made 
a clear dividing-line of feeling, and, however 
genial, social, or friendly, intercourse might be, 
the underlying realization was never lacking of 
that which generations of refined and educated 
ancestry can give. A keenly discriminating 
parent expressed it to his daughter in the simple 
phraseology of the day, " A very nice young 
man, Polly, but he ain't our sort! " 

Gloriana felt it to be giving her child a privi- 
lege that she should be born under the old roof, 
for, pleasant as was the home in Derby, it was not 
exalted or hallowed by association with either 
side of the family. On the upper hills under the 
blue sky of June, when the tall grass was yet 
waving in fringing billows, and the birds were 
singing in welcome, the little girl was born. 
She received the name of Marietta, following 

224 



YOUTH AND AGE 

the sentimental or romantic fashion common at 
that period of embellishing the plainer name 
from which it was derived. Two baptismal 
names were still uncommon, being rarely used 
until the century was well under way, as may be 
realized by recalling the names of the nation's 
history. But although at the baptism in the 
Ripton Church " Marietta " was the name 
uttered by sponsor and priest, it was as " Mary " 
that the child was known, the dear grand- 
mother's name falling most readily from the lips. 
This was a child to be worshipped in the silent 
manner of the time, not with lavish endearments 
and self-absorbed interest, but in a secret shrine 
in the mother's heart. She knew that her child 
must be fairer, brighter, better than others, still 
the repression of the day, the fear of fostering 
self-love or self-conceit, the responsibility of 
bringing up this darling to the highest sense of 
duty, of rectitude, and of every desirable prin- 
ciple, forbade much outward demonstration. 
" Pa " and " Ma " might see in the opening intel- 
lect a glowing promise for the future, but they 
would hardly lisp to each other, or acknowledge 
to themselves, their firm belief in the wonder of 

the star risen above their horizon. 

225 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

Little Mary's visits to her grandparents were 
always a delight, even the tall grandfather stoop- 
ing to guide the first timid steps. From one of 
the green doors in the end of the house facing 
tfhe street lay the path of narrow stones, and 
little Mary had hardly learned to guide her own 
feet when these stones seemed laid for her espe- 
cial pleasure. The fond grandfather, now past 
threescore and ten, led the child, as she stepped 
back and forth on the little path, grasping one 
of his long, slim fingers with her tiny hand. 
As she grew more independent she walked care- 
fully behind him, watching lest she step on the 
cracks between the stones, or finding her pleas- 
ure in stepping on the cracks only. There was 
always some new way of walking or jumping 
along the stones suggested by the active mind 
to the little feet, and the blades of grass that 
thrust themselves through the cracks were 
pulled off by her imperious fingers. 

The tall grandfather lifted the little girl, that 

she might see the baby birds in the robins' nest, 

and he led her carefully about the barn-yards, 

amid all the interesting life, young lambs timid 

and woolly, tender-eyed calves and fuzzy, golden 

226 



YOUTH AND AGE 

chickens. Nor, if he held her, was she afraid of 
the big gobbler, or of the line of great white 
geese. By the outer butt'ry door grew a large 
raspberry bush, and it was the fond hand of age 
that picked the ripe, black berries, fitting them 
as thimbles on each of the little white ringers. 
There was great comradeship between the old 
man and the little four-year-old bearing his 
wife's name, a comradeship sweet and refreshing 
to him, though to the child a matter of course. 

In the early twilight, when Grandmother 
Mary, sitting in her " ottoman chair," shaped 
with practised hand the little foot of a soft white 
stocking, Grandfather Daniel, holding the little 
girl on his knee closely to him, would bend his 
silvered head to her fair one, with a whisper to 
the child to ask from her grandmother " a spin- 
ning song." The pedlers who toiled over the 
rough roads with their packs carried, among 
other novelties, ballads printed on single sheets 
of paper, giving the words only, and the pedler 
as a part of his trade must be able to sing 
the tunes, and must also be willing to stay long 
enough to teach them to the purchaser. The 

latter having learned the air perfectly, pinned the 

227 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

page of words to her distaff, and, as she spun her 
daily stint, committed them to memory. Of all 
the store which Mary knew there were two 
favorites, and, the little girl being given the first 
choice, asked always for " The Miser " — the 
" catchy " air pleasing a taste yet too young to 
understand the lessons of life — the song begin- 
ning: 

"A rich old miser courted me, ♦ 

His age was threescore years and three, 
And I a girl of seventeen, 
I wish his face I ne'er had seen;" — 

while the grandfather's favorite, sure to follow, 
was 

The Normandy Maid. 

i 



jjpi i 1 ~^~rj j = jl - j i j . PPi i i 1 

liLP . . ■ . ■ ,\ i i i ,1 ■ .1 



1 1 \ s U-±j = t4A J J j_j -I jij: J j n i 



QA^wu- pr -Lu- AtZf- t So k* iCukt-Lu. £*«-£" «+**&*. c&M&L, /ly ftx 



m p p= i j- ' t^=^^, i a / j >-^ 



*K 



JrUtUvaJ t*. Art) {L-Ji c^-A. JU+4, CuJ. i Oc*~>'!u*.t** X*«~^>f.l><W 






OtivJ. iirtk L+vn*. hryn- £x*. £m£tf*t v* *rrZL t &**J- v 




<6**t-bi*. itv^-ijuv*hZ~], btrvr 4t*~L, Lufif. dun***. £»>♦.*** dt&u. n\"7ne, 

228 



YOUTH AND AGE 



" I once knew a Normandy maid, 

Whose sire was a crusty old elf, 
And he was greatly afraid 

That the maiden would choose for herself; 
So he kept her quite under control, 

By the means of a good lock and key, 
And I saw her one evening, poor soul, 

Look down from her lattice on me, 
And I saw her one evening, poor soul, 

Look down from her lattice on me. 

II 

" With iron her lattice was barred, 

To none could she utter a word, 
And I thought it wondrously hard 

That a maid should be caged like a bird, 
So at night, when sleep conquered her sire, 

I arose with steps light and free, 
And said, ' Should the house be on fire, 

Sweet maiden, come down unto me.' 

Ill 

" Some branches I burned, and the smoke 
By the wind to the lattice conveyed; 
Cried ' Fire!' till the father awoke 

And let out the poor trembling maid. 

He was very near dead with the fright, 

Yet no spark nor flame could he see, 

But the maiden ran down with delight 

To the spark that had just set her free." 

229 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

The little head marked the time and the dear 

old husband saw only the young wife, as the 

voice, yet sweet, though so far beyond its prime, 

sang with a spirit more in accord with her step, 

still quick and elastic, than with the record of 

years in the family Bible. 

230 



XXVII 
THE HOUR OF SORROW 

A sad hour came. October had lost nearly- 
half its days when word was sent to Derby that 
fear and anxiety dwelt in the old house, and 
Gloriana hastened to take her place by her 
father's bedside and to close the dear eyes as 
the presence of 'the Angel of Death was felt. 
Tidings of the event were sent far and near to 
all kindred and friends, a verbal message gen- 
erally, but to the parson at Ripton a formal 
notice from the eldest son that " the honored 
father had passed away in the article of death." 

All the necessary preparations were the work 
of friendly hands. The best of everything in 
the house was for the dead. The shroud, a gar- 
ment exactly the same for men and women, and, 
unlike anything worn in life, was of fine white 
linen, perfectly plain, and cut so long that it was 

tied together with a cord below the feet. 

231 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

Coffins were made only as required, and were 
of various woods, according to the means of 
those ordering them, cherry being the most ex- 
pensive. The long boards were kept already 
steamed and bent to the desired shape, the rule 
being to make the head of the coffin one-third 
narrower than across the breast, and the foot 
one-third narrower than the 'head. The wood 
was stained dark and was highly polished. The 
coffin was lined with fine linen, its quality de- 
pending on the wealth of the family; a pillow 
was arranged by a bunch of shavings under the 
lining, and a curtain of the linen, pinked on its 
lower edge, and just long enough to cover the 
face of the dead, was nailed to the head of the 
coffin. The lid was hinged so that the head- 
piece could be laid back, and on the other part of 
the lid, over the breast, the form of a heart en- 
closed the initials and figures denoting the age 
of the dead, all outlined in brass-headed nails. 

The coffin-maker lived at a distance and an 
ox-cart must transport his work. An outside 
box was never used, and the handles of small 
rope were fastened at the ends of the coffin. 

To prepare the house for the service it was 

232 



THE HOUR OF SORROW 

deemed fitting to cover everything possible with 
white linen. The mirrors and pictures were care- 
fully shrouded, and the coffin itself usually 
placed on a long narrow table, that was covered 
to the floor with a large sheet carefully pinned 
at the corners. 

A funeral was counted a much more im- 
portant function than a wedding. It was a mat- 
ter of sentiment, lacking the mechanical effect 
of modern days. Affection, respect, neig'hbor- 
liness and kinship brought all to the house 
who could reach it, and no one was too busy 
to take time to bury the dead. The services were 
almost invariably held in the houses. The Par- 
son was presented with a scarf of white linen 
three yards long, which, laid in folds, was worn 
over the right shoulder, and often fastened there 
and also where the ends crossed under the left 
arm, with rosettes of black crape. This was of 
as fine linen as the family could afford, and was 
of the right length to be converted into a shirt 
which the Parson was expected to wear as a 
memorial. Mourning for the family, especially 
for the women, was of great importance, and 

conventionalities could not be transgressed. 

233 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

Little Mary 'had been left at home till the day 
of the funeral, and when she reached the old 
house, the nervous but restrained child found 
it strangely hushed. One and another en- 
tering by this door and that, silently seated 
themselves in the chairs set against the 
wall. The father took her little hand in 
his, and, leading her into the parlor, lifted the 
child that she might see the face from which 
he had thrown back the linen curtain. To her 
it meant little. She had been told that her 
grandfather was dead, but the strange face she 
saw made no impression. She had never seen 
her grandfather look like that, and it was only 
in a bewildered way that she 'had any knowledge 
of what it meant. So when she was seated by 
a window and saw men and women dismount 
from the horses continually coming from up 
and down the road, and old Jube and other 
helpful faands ready to aid, she found the out- 
side world very interesting. Then all the people 
came in, and the hush was even greater while the 
good Parson, in his black gown, white bands, 
and the white scarf, read the solemn service. The 

sad farewells followed, and she saw some one 

234 



THE HOUR OF SORROW 

carefully lay the little white curtain in its place, 
and turn back the hinged lid, making it secure. 
A stir outside claimed her gaze, and she saw the 
men stepping back with bared heads, while four 
of them carried the coffin out of t?he front door. 
The gate that opened to the road on a line with 
this door was narrower than that leading from 
the little stone path, and, as she looked, the 
bearers turned the corner of the house, and 
walked, not on the narrow stones, but at each 
side of them. Then, with a rush of feeling, 
she realized who was being carried out, that 
the dear grandfather was dead, and to be 
dead meant to go away and never come 
back, and that he would never again lead 
her over the little stones. But dear old 
'Mandy came and took the sobbing child away, 
While outside the procession of " two and two " 
formed. There were no hearses, and it was not 
yet common to carry the dead in a farm-wagon. 
The coffin was placed on a bier and covered with 
a black pall. The people were mounted on sad- 
dles and pillions in order of kinship, long stream- 
ers of black crape falling from the hats of the 
men, while the Parson, with his white scarf, 

235 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

went in advance on his own horse, and faithful 
Jube also mounted, led the other slaves who 
walked in the rear. 

It was no longer necessary to go to the 
churchyard in Ripton, White Hills having its 
own burying-place two miles distant. Eight 
bearers had been chosen, as relief would be 
needed for so long a distance, and before the 
start was made a bottle of orange-peel bitters 
was passed to the Parson, who, being refreshed 
thereby, passed it to the bearers. Then four 
of them lifted the bier till it rested on their 
shoulders, and, with a quiet marching step, 
the journey began. When the bearers c'hanged, 
which meant also a passing from hand to hand 
of the strengthening bitters, the relief stepped 
in before the others, and, without breaking step, 
took the burden, while the weary men filed 
out. For so long a march the change was made 
several times ere the open grave was reached. 

The road lay through the wood and past 

familiar fields, uphill and down. A sharp frost 

had loosened the hold of the bright autumn 

leaves, and the maples and beeches mourning 

the loss of their old friend, cast a glowing carpet 

236 



THE HOUR OF SORROW 

under the feet of those carrying him to his rest- 
ing-place, while now and again the leaves, float- 
ing tenderly down from the tree-tops to rest on 
the pall, bore their message that for them also 
had come the hour of " earth to earth." 

The grassy graveyard lying under the soft 
October sky seemed to welcome this child of 
earth, and, 'the bier being lowered, and the pall 
removed, dust was committed to dust, the sun- 
light glinting in the brass-nailed heart and let- 
ters as t'hey disappeared below the line of the 
turf. Before the Benediction the grave was 
rilled, it being deemed indecorous not to wait 
until that work was done, and then ere the Par- 
son lifted his hand in blessing, he said: " I am 
requested on behalf of the afflicted family to ex- 
tend to all relatives and friends their sin- 
cere thanks for your kind attentions during the 
period of illness, your assistance at these last sad 
offices for the dead, and your sympathy in this 

time of their deep bereavement." 

237 



XXVIII 

THE THIRD GENERATION 

Other changes followed. It finally seemed 
best for the sake of the lonely widow that Glori- 
ana should take her place again in the old home, 
and the family removed from Derby to the Hills. 
Little Mary, then seven years old, almost forgot 
that she had ever had another home. She loved 
the place, the free breezes that felt to her as if 
they came more directly from the upper blue 
than those of the valley, and she loved the long 
outlines of hills, and that reach of vision that 
seems to see far beyond its reality. The country 
life was full of joy; the road to the little school- 
house was rich in treasures, blue violets, nodding 
columbines, may-apples, wild strawberries, and 
dropping nuts waiting but for her eager hand. 
And there was a treat every summer when Queen 

Esther's lilies were in bloom. The bed had 

238 



THE THIRD GENERATION 

grown larger and larger, crowding out much 
else, and the tall stalks were always " setting 
sums " for her, counting, adding, and multiply- 
ing their quota of blossoms. It was a joy indeed 
to carry home a stalk or two to put in a dark-blue 
" Rebecca at the Well " pitcher, in a sunny win- 
dow, where she might watch the buds unfold, 
while she asked, and heard again and again, how 
the great-grandmother Esther loved them and 
their sunset tinging. Common as the lily had 
become there was none from other gardens that 
bore for her the same charm 

Little Mary loved nature, sky and tree and 
flower; both the near and the distant horizons 
had always a message for her. She felt herself 
a part of it, not as an imaginative child would, 
but in a practical way; the flowers bloomed for 
her pleasure, not to hide a fairy, and the sun- 
beams and breezes brought her a present joy 
rather than a wondering of Whence? and 
Whither? The other side of the hills did not 
trouble her if only the hither side were pleas- 
urable. 

She was a very nervous child, reserved, cap- 
able for her age, with keen perceptions and 

239 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

independent thought, but before and above all 
else unquestioning in her obedience and respect. 
The grandfather's place could not be filled; 
young as she was, certain places were sacred to 
him, but her natural reserve prevented expres- 
sion, save when climbing into his great chair, 
she leaned lovingly back in it as if still feeling 
his presence. 

Grandmother Mary took the child more than 
ever to her heart and companionship, and it 
was on a pillion behind the active old lady that 
the little maid went to church at Ripton, or as 
an especial privilege to visit the old friend 
Hepzibah. Cousin Charity had gone from earth, 
and Mary's world seemed to be growing old very 
rapidly. Hepzibah herself was nearly fourscore, 
and to practice the art she loved was now 
beyond her power. She still saw beauty 
everywhere; in every cloud that floated above, 
in every branch that waved below, in the 
blue flags and bright cardinal flowers by 
the clear watercourses, in the yarrow that lifts 
its little white parasol through all the summer, 
and the deep purple aster telling that sum- 
mer is gone; in the bare branches of the winter, 

240 



THE THIRD GENERATION 

lifting pleading hands, or sweeping downward 
with the winds as if bearing the benediction they 
had sought from the upper air; all came into her 
heart to find the same love and sympathy, but 
with sight dimmed and the touch of youth van- 
ished, she could no longer give them expres- 
sion. 

Nearly three years after Daniel's death, and 
when Queen Esther's lilies were in blossom, 
there came again to the old house the mysterious 
message so full of sorrow and blessing. The 
elastic energetic nature enjoying the rush 
of life often fails to realize how shallow the 
water has become, or to feel the keel grating on 
the sand until the bow swings to the shore 
and all is being made fast. So this life for 
Grandmother Mary came to its close, and she 
who in her eightieth year did not hesitate to 
sit in the saddle for a ten miles' ride saw 
not how far into harbor she had floated, until 
the sails were lowered, and the voyage finished. 
There was then but faith to utter, and farewell 
to say, with the blessing of a mother's undying 
love, and the house was filled with that myster- 
ious presence before which all earthly matters 

241 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

fade, and that bears the visible onward to the 
invisible, from the joy that was, through the pain 
of sorrow, to the rapture that shall be. 

Again the clan gathered, again little Mary, 
now with fuller realization, saw the bearers care- 
fully carry their burden above the path of narrow 
stones. Children and grandchildren, kindred 
and friends, little Mary in her youth, and Hep- 
zibah in her age, the old slaves loudly lamenting, 
and the young colored people, though free still 
giving their allegiance, made a long procession 
following after bearers and Parson under the 
green trees, and along the familiar winding 
highway, to the grassy graveyard already made 
sacred to so many of the throng. 

When the white headstone was in place it 
bore testimony in its simple inscription to the 
appreciation of her children for the love and de- 
votion of which they had never known lack: 

"She was a kind and affectionate mother.". 

Thus Gloriana and her own small family were 
finally left alone in t'he great house with the re- 
maining colored members, who were a small 

number also. During the preceding winter 

242 



THE THIRD GENERATION 

both Jube and 'Mandy had closed their eyes 
to earth, and had been carried out over the 
narrow stones to the same enclosure where 
lay the bodies of the master and mistress they 
had served so long and so faithfully. Samson 
and Moll were " old folks" now. 'Roosh 
(Jerusha), Gloriana's own handmaiden, and 
Pete, her husband, remained of the able-bodied. 
Bose, though not yet an old man, was more care 
than aid, for though obedient and devoted in 
spirit his mind was ever under a cloud. 

243 



XXIX 

GIRLHOOD AND ROMANCE 

The long years of life are those of childhood, 
and the developing intellect might well count 
them so were it able to measure the store of 
wealth attained. Even the limited district 
school of the upper hill country unfolded vast 
riches to little Mary's search, but after a few 
years greater advantages were sought, and the 
famous school of Miss Pierce in Litchfield was 
the goal. At thirteen years old Mary could no 
longer be called " little." She had grown so tall 
that her record of years was rarely credited by 
the stranger, especially as her mind also be- 
tokened a longer period of growth. So she took 
a good place in the institution, when, having 
taken her there, her father left her to her first 
independent venture in life, with the admonition, 

" Never forget your accountability." 

244 



GIRLHOOD AND ROMANCE 

Shy, self-contained, and quiet, none realized 
the nature that the discipline of life was to de- 
velop later. But she made satisfactory progress 
in her studies, and the tone of mind of the day 
may be understood from a letter written to hef 
father. Returning from school by stage-coach, 
she recorded her arrival at a friend's house in 
New Haven, where she was to await him. She 
wrote that there had been ten passengers in the 
coach, all but two of them ladies, and that the 
tedium of the journey had been relieved by the 
ladies taking turns in reading aloud an essay on 
good behavior! Later, at school, such questions 
were discussed as " Which is the most destruc- 
tive, War or Ardent Spirits? " " Does Man- 
kind ever act but from selfish motives? " which 
might now be considered advanced subjects for 
minds of fourteen or fifteen years. The school 
in Litchfield was supplemented by one in New 
Haven, thus leading to new friendships nearer 
home. 

Although legal majority was the same then 
as now, the entrance into social life was much 
earlier. A white crepe frock served for a ball- 
dress in her fifteenth year, and there was eager- 

245 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

ness for the adornments that festivities demand. 
Gloriana was a woman of intelligence, strong 
character, and of more worldly wisdom than 
one would suppose could result from the 'com- 
parative quiet and isolation of her life. She 
was a good judge of human nature, and, al- 
though all sorts and conditions of life had not 
passed before her, she had keen insight and 
ready understanding of the differences in hu- 
manity. She was a wise counsellor, broad of 
vision, and had learned to measure life's phases 
not with a yardstick, but with a plummet. That 
her daughter should have full measure of the 
pleasures of life was her desire, and through 
friends and kindred the way was opened for a 
wider experience than came to most of those 
living along the same lines. Mary had no pre- 
tension to beauty or even prettiness; there was 
but the attraction of youth, with a well-trained 
mind and a quick intelligence, behind a very 
quiet demeanor. She was not seventeen, how- 
ever, when the climax of her life was reached. 
At a ball in Ripton a young Southerner, then 
a student at Yale College, appeared, and divined 

at once the hidden wealth of her nature. The 

246 



GIRLHOOD AND ROMANCE 

charm of his chivalric attention and entire de- 
votion made a deep impression, and she willingly 
consented to accept his escort for a ride the 
following day. He was an adept in the art of 
flirting, while she, so reticent, was but a novice. 
His hasty offer of marriage she could hardly un- 
derstand; she had not the courage to dismiss 
him entirely, but was unwilling to marry, as he 
desired, within a few months, when his college 
life should be finished. The more reserved 
Northern nature found the Southern ardor diffi- 
cult to comprehend. She was coy and reticent, 
unkind when he was kind, but hurt when he was 
indifferent. She feared a " hot love, soon cold," 
and this lack of confidence finally caused separa- 
tion, despite the heartache it brought to both. 
He returned to the South, and after three years 
she heard of his death; unhappiness had marked 
his life, and he died alone, a wanderer away from 
friend and kindred. 

With uncontrollable force the agony of her 
love overwhelmed her. What she had concealed 
almost from herself was now manifest. Life was 
but a dull, blank heartache, and the only grain 

of comfort was in gazing from the southern 

247 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

window, until, with a rush of feeling, she bent 
her head to the window-sill to hide the flood of 
tears. That this must not continue Gloriana 
realized. There was, therefore, a hurry of 
stitches and fitting of garments, and against her 
will the girl must take her place and part in the 
coming commencement festivities at Yale. 
Forced thus to live outside of her grief, she sum- 
moned to her aid her own resources. The keen 
wit inherited from her father, and a lively fancy 
and laughing gayety heretofore shown but un- 
der cover of reserve, were now brought to the 
front, and she seemed transformed. Almost at 
once she became a social power, attracting both 
by her humor and sense of humor, as few can by 
personal beauty, and, burying under this light- 
ness the pain lying so deep, that for years she 
never mentioned the beloved name. 

She was always a welcome guest, and at this 
time she wrote of herself: " I am just the same 
tall, ill-looking girl as ever, gadding abroad the 
whole time in search of amusements. " 

Indulgent parents granted her all possible 
opportunities for diversion, and watched the re- 
covery of balance with relief and satisfaction. 

248 



GIRLHOOD AND ROMANCE 

Other swains hovered near; there was never 
lack of gallant youth, some seeking only the 
pleasure of the hour, but the lovers of fun, of wit, 
and even of satire found in the " ill-looking 
girl " a kindliness of nature, and a sympathy 
with suffering that forbade the wit that cut too 
sharply, or the sarcasm that was malicious. 
Some sought her for companion and friend, 
while others, seeing still deeper, sought, though 
vainly, for the gift of her life and love. 

Music had become a strong interest and love; 
correspondence was ever a pleasure, the desire 
for self-improvement and to gain " the power 
of expressing myself on paper, to talk and write 
with sense and judgment," never slumbered. 
She was " willing to study, to read the best 
books, and accustom myself to reflect on the 
subject, to use perseverance, patience, and prac- 
tice." Her correspondence reached as far as the 
West Indies; letters of confidence between girls 
are always delightful; they were exchanged fre- 
quently by private hand, and, as one of them 
said, " by mail when anything occurs that is 
worth ten cents." When absent from home, 

communication was as frequent as possible, and 

249 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

a letter from her mother is called " corn, wine, 
and oil to my spirits." 

- Journeys were made, long for those days, and 
the city of New York with its bustle, always at- 
tracted her. She had known it more or less, 
since when, a little child, she had gone down on 
the sloop, and on waking one morning in the 
harbor, among the shipping, said, " Oh, mother, 
what a lot of dead trees! " And as she enjoyed 
its pleasures in her grown-up life, she said, 
" Large cities throw away lots of small things 
that would furnish a country town with interest 
and amusement forever." 

With all the love of change she wrote a 
friend, " I think I shall find some satisfaction in 
conversing with a purring cat, a good fire, a 
piano-forte, or, in fact, reasonable creatures. I 
have good health, a snug house, parents that de- 
light to comfort me, while I undertake to make 

all things pass pleasantly for them." 

250 



XXX 

THE AGED FRIEND 

To Hepzibah, the grandmother's old friend, 

a long life was granted. When she had reached 

the age of ninety-five her normal eyesight had 

returned, and she read without spectacles, and 

when her eyes were tired she " read in the dark," 

repeating what she knew. At this advanced age 

she declared, that if Watts' Hymns were out 

of print she could supply a new edition from 

memory, and that she could repeat hymns from 

Sunday morning till Saturday night. Her 

memory had always been remarkable, and she 

had not failed to cultivate it. A sermon 

could be repeated almost verbatim; the Bible was 

so well known that without hesitation she could 

give chapter and verse at request. " Paradise 

Lost," and other books she knew also " by 

heart," and her memory of events antedating and 

251 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

connected with the Revolution, brought to her 
visits from the antiquarians of the day. On the 
surrender of Burgoyne she had written a spirited 
poem, and repeated it on request in 1823, saying 
she had never written it out but once, and that 
over forty years previously. 

This second sight did not, however, continue 
to the end. She became blind, and the long, long 
years had left many deep lines on her face. A 
great-grandson was brought to see her, and she 
made him sit on the stool at her feet that she 
might pass her thin, trembling hands over the 
young face, to see if he bore the beauty of her 
husband's family. And although she told a lit- 
tle great-granddaughter the wonderful tale that 
when she herself was but three years old and sit- 
ting on her grandfather's knee, she caught a 
humming-bird in her little hand as it was flying 
near, the child, unheeding the story, wept as she 
saw the wrinkled visage, and asked if, " When 
she got to heaven, God would make her face 
smooth again." 

Gloriana, always remembering the long 

friendship between Hepzibah and her mother, 

sought to take in some measure the latter's 

252 



THE AGED FRIEND 

place. When Hepzibah had passed her ninety- 
seventh birthday, the end of this life for her 
was visibly near. Confined to her bed for a short 
time from weakness, and needing little care be- 
yond a watchful love, the Bible, hymns, and Her- 
vey's " Meditations Among the Tombs," — the 
whole of which she could repeat — filled her 
mind. Gloriana went to pass the night at her 
bedside, to " watch " with her, as she could not 
be left alone, and this friendly help was needed. 
She sat, book in hand, near the light, an occa- 
sional glance at the quiet sleeper being all that 
was necessary. Hepzibah waked once or twice, 
spoke a word, and slept again, and Gloriana kept 
her vigil, reading, but with watchful eye and ear. 
She had lifted her glance and seen the quiet 
breathing as undisturbed as usual; soon after 
she looked again, and the spirit had fled. Ninety- 
seven years of this life ended as a leaf drops from 
a tree! One quiet instant of severance, and the 
spirit was rendered up to the Giver; then the 
body, marked by the touch of time, but beautiful 
in the holy serenity of death, was laid in its rest- 
ing-place. 

253 



XXXI 

THE CHANGING YEARS 

Material life was verging to the great transi- 
tion that has marked this century, and many 
things already common in the larger centres were 
slowly reaching up to the hills. Carriages were 
unknown there until about 1820. An ox-cart 
or farm-wagon marked the limit of vehicles, 
and when the first gig with its over-reaching 
black hood was driven through that country the 
horses and mules started in fright. But gigs and 
chaises soon became common, and coaches fol- 
lowed, though in a small community only one 
or two might be owned, which were always bor- 
rowed for the use of the chief mourners at all 
funerals of people in the owners' grade of life. 

To the progressive mind a gig or chaise with 
only two wheels seemed a safe and natural evolu- 
tion from the ox-cart, but a woman who was ex- 
pert in 'the art of balancing herself on a pillion, 

254 



THE CHANGING YEARS 

no matter how rough the road or fractious the 
horse, often hesitated about surrendering her- 
self to so complicated a possibility for mishap 
as a four-wheeled structure. Courage grew 
with use, however, and the roads improved 
under the necessity that wheels created, and in 
due time the " iron horse " came within conven- 
ient reach of the hill-people. 

The tinder-box disappeared, as it was sup- 
planted by matches about 1830. As little by 
little the " hand-made " fabrics gave way to the 
" machine-made " the spinning-wheel had rest. 
The old slaves, one by one, had passed 
from the scene of their labors, and the 
younger generation, born in freedom and set- 
tling in homes of their own, gave less and less 
domestic service. With these new conditions 
the hard time for the housewife began. There 
were fewer hands and feet to render service, life 
was becoming more exacting, more complex, the 
rigors of climate were unchanged, while with 
easier transit and more frequent communication 
the demands upon friendship, society, and hos- 
pitality increased. The traditions of an " open 

house " could only be lived up to with difficulty. 

255 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

The foreign element had not yet lifted much of 
the burden that the negro had left on the white 
hands unaccustomed to so much of the work. 
The conditions of life, changing so slowly that 
there had seemed to be no change, were verg- 
ing toward an upheaval. The old house, how- 
ever, true to its traditions, altered but little. 
Novelty has slight charm for those who cherish 
every tender association, and though the daugh- 
ter in her flittings might gather to herself such 
modern affairs as pleased her, the old people — 
for they were growing old — settled quietly in 
the accustomed place with that content that 
cares not for variety, and clings lovingly to old 
surroundings. 

As the father neared his eightieth year he told 
Mary one day that he was going to Derby, but 
did not ask her to accompany him. On his re- 
turn he said to her, privately: 

" Mary, where do you think I went to-day? " 

" I don't know, Pa." 

" I went to the old graveyard in Derby. You 

know your mother thinks there are no people in 

the world like her family, and she will want to 

be buried with them, but I like the old grave- 

256 



THE CHANGING YEARS 

yard where my father and mother are buried, 
and there's a fine old oak-tree on the knoll that 
I've always thought I'd like to lie under. I 
went there to-day, and I'm disappointed to find 
that another man has got in before me! But 
there is just room for me by my mother's 
side, and though you needn't say anything to 
your mother about it now, that's where I want 
to be buried." 

And Mary said, " Yes, Pa." 

Not long after serious illness developed, and 
the devoted care of wife and daughter was sad- 
dened by the advancing shadow. The man him- 
self took a clear look at the situation, and the 
doctor being expected, called Mary to his bed- 
side and bade her ask him to declare exactly the 
patient's condition. Mary did so, and, after his 
departure, with a torn heart returned to her 
father, who, at the first private opportunity, said, 
" Mary, did you ask the doctor what I told you 
to?" 

" Yes, Pa." 

"What did 'he say?" 

' Do you want me to tell you just what he 
said? " 

257 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

" Yes, Mary." 

" Well, he said he thought you would not live 
more than three or four days." 

" That's exactly what I thought myself! 

The great change came, and the funeral pro- 
cession wound down the steep hills and over 
the rivers to the grave chosen. Then the les- 
sened household took up the duty of life, old yet 
new, with its shifted burden. Mary had reached 
middle life, the able mother was nearing four- 
score. A violent illness seized her, from which 
she recovered physically, but the mental vigor 
was impaired, and " Miss Mary," as she was 
known to most, found herself in reality the head 
of the house, though she never suffered friend 
or servant to regard that title as gone from the 
venerable mother. The weakening intellect, the 
wavering memory that lasted but an instant, and 
then required a repetition of the information al- 
ready given, were met with a patience and 
serenity, and with a spirit of reverent affection, 
that may well encircle as with a halo, the devoted 
daughter who rendered what was so difficult, 
with such unfaltering tenderness. 

Miss Mary began keeping a journal, in a de- 

258 



THE CHANGING YEARS 

sultory way at first, but as years passed it became 
a prominent factor in her life. As the mother's 
mental power grew weaker and weaker, the care 
required was more and more exacting. The old 
retainers were all gone. New servants lacking 
interest, lacked patience, and the time came 
when it was easier to assume all the labor of the 
house than to reconcile and harmonize the un- 
trained mind with the feeble one. Guests for the 
hour or day were still welcome, and the habit 
of life gave always a gracious greeting from 
her who no longer distinguished friend from 
stranger. There arose, however, memories, or 
at least suggestions, of the past, when she, as a 
child, went about the old home, and the younger 
brother was sought with hurrying tread, and 
a call of " Victory! Victory! " 

Ninety-one years of life were finished ere the 
soul of Gloriana was freed from the worn body, 
and at last Miss Mary was alone. Though lonely 
at heart, the familiar rooms hallowed by the 
loves and lives of two generations were never 
lonely to her, and after a lonp^ journeying that 
the prolonged care and devotion made desirable, 
she returned to her home with gladness and 

satisfaction. 

259 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

The division of her grandfather's broad lands 
had left but little inheritance from him beyond 
the house and its immediate surroundings. The 
care of many acres was not hers, and with such 
assistance as was readily procured for weightier 
labors s'he preferred to keep 'her solitude un- 
broken. Neighbors were nearer than formerly; 
she had learned to find the way out of any 
labyrinth, and also the art of readjustment, 
with a philosophy like her father's. Thus she 
wrote in her journal: "The world is full of 
changes, and we have only to brush them away 
as fast as others come." This was in relation 
to the external. Of what is deeper she wrote: 
of her father — " He has been on my mind more 
of late than usual, and I have talked of him a 
great deal to friends. In his old age he almost 
idolized me, and I was devoted to him and 
administered not only to his wants but to his 
pleasure. He was very indulgent to me, and 
we always harmonized." Of 'her mother, " It 
is four years to-day since my dear mother died. 
I cannot realize it. I feel her presence at times 
so closely that I almost expect to see her." " It 

is five years to-day since my mother died. I 

260 



THE CHANGING YEARS 

think of her more or less every day, and always 
miss her. No end of her handiwork is every- 
where about the house that meets my sight con- 
tinually, and what could I do without these 
treasures!" " I often dream of my mother; she 
always comes to my senses in a pleasant form, 
sleeping or waking, she seems ever on my mind. 
How much I miss her, for the love and kindness 
she ever bore me. Even in her old age she was 
my counsellor and my friend as no other can 
ever be. My house has lost its charm and has 
become desolate." " I have longed for my 
mother's presence ever since she departed. She 
was my true and patient and sympathizing 
friend uninterruptedly, all the life we lived and 
loved together." A long-waiting letter from a 
friend brings out — " this poor dear empty world 
is to be journeyed through by so many winding 
and rough roads that when I do not feel ham- 
mered oat flat by the mallet of affliction or chis- 
eled to pieces by care, I shall never allow a letter 

from you to remain unanswered so long again." 

261 



XXXII 
AT HOME AND ABROAD 

The living alone in the old house became 
more and more satisfactory to Miss Mary. Vari- 
ous ventures were made for companionship with 
the younger generation, resulting always in 
thankfulness when the continued presence of 
some one not entirely after her own mind came 
to an end, and she wrote, " I take a world of 
comfort all alone in my own house; nobody 
makes me afraid, even if they molest me in a gos- 
siping way." 

In fact, the disagreeable side of life came to be 
the interference of others with her own free 
choice. " It is a marvel how many of my ac- 
quaintance feel competent to give me advice un- 
sought about my domestic affairs. I don't re- 
member when I was not subject to this indirect 

fault-finding with my ways, and I have such a 

262 



AT HOME AND ABROAD 

decided weakness for liking my ways better than 
the ways of those who are so liberal with their 
opinions." " Staying in my own house in soli- 
tary state is very pleasant to me, but worries my 
neighbors." 

The love of travel became a ruling power, and, 
her wheel of fortune not turning upward, choice 
must be made between that cause for expencU- 
ture and costly raiment, resulting in favor of the 
former. The elegancies of life appealed strongly 
to Miss Mary. She was a welcome guest in 
many a great house, and no touch of splendor in 
its appointment, or in the manner of life therein, 
failed of her thorough appreciation. All polite 
attentions also were most acceptable to her, 
and on the brink of a journey she felt she " had 
put through an eddy of still life, and now comes 
the crowded hour and a long day of reaction." 
" The hum and stir of life in its politest form " 
was most .attractive, and she liked to feel the 
hurry of life that made her " wish the days 
forty-eight hours long, as life is short to accom- 
plish what is thrown in one's way." " The spell 
of intellect and culture is always irresistible to 

me," and " there are a great many ' field-days ' 

263 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

in society." The summer resorts of wealth and 
fashion were an attraction ever beckoning her, 
and for many years a season rarely passed that 
did not find her at one or more of the large ho- 
tels frequented by people of culture and social 
standing, among whom she always found an im- 
portant place. Many called her eccentric, and 
she bore out perfectly John Stuart Mill's " We 
find eccentricity of character in proportion to 
that amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral 
courage possessed by the individual." Of her- 
self in this respect she wrote in her journal, " My 
individuality is so marked that, even if I am ever 
so interesting, I am apt to be unfavorably criti- 
cized by exceedingly proper persons, and a sta- 
ple of ridicule to those who busy themselves 
watching the eccentricities of others. Yet I 
never fail to receive the polite attention of the 
most distinguished, at resorts of any kind, when 
I choose. It is pleasant to be praised, and no 
one is insensible to it; honest and deserved 
praise, I mean. I loved the appreciation of my 
parents in every stage of my life, and it had a 
good influence on me." 

Wit, originality, and a delight in uttering what 

264 



AT HOME AND ABROAD 

was unexpected from the " spinster getting on 
in years, and with a forbidding cast of counte- 
nance," and in costumes that were often peculiar, 
were sure to make her a centre about which re- 
volved people of all ages. She loved to say the 
word that was gratifying to hear, as well as that 
that amused. " If I can catch the car I know 
my strength. I care nothing for the eye of a per- 
son. I have small attractions for the eye." And 
this attention and admiration were her best tonic. 
" Change of company and change of place pro- 
mote a vigorous circulation of spirits. — At home 
I encourage contentment by creating for myself 
simple tastes and honest occupation. No one 
loves travelling more than I do, and to mingle 
with the world; it lights up my feelings and 
tastes like a gleam of sunshine." " My house is 
very pleasant to me, and it is the soundest judg- 
ment to remain in it; my love of travel overcomes 
everything, and I am very uneasy to start off." 

The choice between travel and dress was early 
made, still the latter had some requirements. 
" I am taking a survey of my old-fashioned 
wardrobe, and intend to try the effect of mod- 
ernizing it by way of economy, and see if I can- 

265 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

not throw over my equipment a savor and 
sprinkling- of gentility. Fashion changes so 
often now-a-days that it is a tremendous expense 
of time and labor to keep up with it, conse- 
quently, I make no pretence to do so — let me 
dress as I will and act as I please, other people's 
judgment or opinions do not affect the peace of 
my life. I pursue my own way rejoicing, in- 
dependent of censure, but gratified with ap- 
plause, somewhat vain, but not very proud." 

Enjoying the sparkle and glitter of life so 
keenly, not only did she " never for a moment 
hesitate to tell of my country life and simple 
habits," but " home is home," and her journal 
gives, " Found my dear old home, homely to 
the eye in comparison to much of the elegance 
I had seen away, but pleasanter to my soul than 
any other spot — my big chamber, clean bed, 
old-fashioned furniture, is charming to my 
senses, and I said aloud to myself, ' It is good to 
be here.' It seems as if I had been absent weeks 
and weeks, and it is only ten days. I shall find 
much to do in getting things regulated, the 
grass is overgrown in the yard, the garden looks 

neglected, hops to pick, and the house to brush 

266 



AT HOME AND ABROAD 

up generally, but I am glad I went! " " It is al- 
ways a broken day in coming home. I never 
get settled down to anything in a steady man- 
ner. But few are situated as I am, opening an 
unoccupied house whenever I return. The un- 
comfortableness lasts but a few hours, whereas 
it would probably be greater and last longer if 
I had left anybody in it during my absence. I 
know of no one that I can rely on to improve 
my condition, notwithstanding I am so often an- 
noyed by questions of ' Why don't you? ' and 
' I should think you would.' " The sense of 
loneliness was, however, often felt: " Is it be- 
cause I am excited or fatigued that my mind 
goes back to other days so vividly at this time? 
Perhaps it is the returning home and no one to 
greet or welcome me, as when my mother was 
alive, and yet, after the experience of the past 
ten years, of a lonely house to open to my soli- 
tary admittance, it could hardly have much in- 
fluence now. At any rate, the remembrance is 
fresher to-night than usual, of the cordial and 
pleasant habit my mother and myself always 
indulged in on the return of whichever had been 

absent; to run hastily to the door or gate with 

267 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

glad countenances and joyful demonstrations, to 
meet each other, or our friends, as might be. 
When mother was very old she never forgot the 
glad welcome, however forgetful in other things. 
I have missed it in all these years, and love the 
custom so that I always carry it out in practice 
at every opportunity, even when my affections 
are not much enlisted." 

Many warm and long-enduring friendships re- 
sulted from the chance acquaintance of hotel 
life, and correspondence, and the making and 
receiving of visits, increased thereby. Miss 
Mary's power not only of analyzing character, 
but of lighting up the weaker points of humanity 
with a touch that gave spice to her letters, is 

rarely equalled. " has performed funeral 

honors to liberty by getting married. " " She 
was an intelligent whetstone to sharpen his fac- 
ulties upon." " The composed air of a hus- 
band." " a tongue in his head, such an one 

as was lost in the tower of Babel." " Most people 
have the grace to hear themselves praised with 
considerable resignation." " is full of gos- 
sip, ' itching ears ' make nimble tongues." 
" There is a kind of zest in snubbing, but tattling 

263 



AT HOME AND ABROAD 

is mean." " I don't really suppose any of us are 
exactly angels." " It is said men don't care for 
money as much as women do: I have noticed 
that men love a beautiful woman, but adore the 
riches of a homely one." " Where do gentle- 
men always hide in hotels, I wonder! " " Men 
don't make idols of old ladies." " We harmonize 
and knit ourselves together so nicely." "... 
our feelings are somewhat askew." " Some 
dote on old houses, old wine, old trees, old cus- 
toms, old pictures, but forget the old woman." 
In her journal she described " Eyes that peered 
everywhere, and ears that listened to everything. 
Her thin lips were puckered up tightly; such 
retention, however, only took place when she 
was called to praise a friend. To administer a 
dose of bitters she gave fluent utterance and a 
wide vocabulary. She has a sharp nose, sharp 
chin, sharp elbows, and a very sharp tongue." 

Another phase of society — entertainments — 
whether near or afar, claimed her interest and 
presence. " I love these musters at home and 
abroad, and, in my day and generation, have 
vibrated through a great number." " I occa- 
sionally join the gay circles, taking into consid- 

269 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

eration the expediency of airing my manners, 
to make sure that I am modern and extant!" 
After a large wedding: " I enjoy these occasions 
even better than when I was young. The 
episodes of earlier dates are gradually fading 
from my thoughts. I have so much to occupy 
my attention now, and receive so much attention 
from society and even the notabilities of the 
present day, that I don't need to fall back on the 
past. I have found my place, and have learned 
to fill it. Most maiden ladies give up these 
things and settle down, forgotten except in their 
family circle and neighborhood." Invitations 
" keep my feelings fresh and afford me pleasant 
intercourse in society, that interferes with no 
one's rights or privileges." " Trimmed my bor- 
ders and cut my grass this morning, trimmed 
myself in my royal robes this afternoon, and 
made calls." " I like sociability. I like to be 
social, even if sometimes a flash of wit, a little 
wisdom, and no end of silly speeches escape me." 
One who added so much to the entertainment of 
others was naturally in demand, and, even when 
the tale of years neared threescore and ten, there 

was no lack in the desire for her presence. All 

270 



AT HOME AND ABROAD 

" musters," however, did not give equal pleas- 
ure, and some were declined. " Although I mix 
but little with the multitudes just now I am by 
no means asleep in my mind's eye." " Amuse- 
ments of a certain kind are rife, but turn out 
light and of poor quality — gossip dull — even 
among speculators! " " I don't think gossiping 
the highest wisdom; it animates us to sundry 
skirmishes and small warfares." 

Guests were always welcomed with rare 
heartiness, and, even though the guests' con- 
venience might be her great inconvenience, the 
traditions of hospitality were never transgressed. 

" The Lord sustain me with Mrs. 's children 

among my peach-trees. How I dread their rav- 
ages and waste." After a visit that had been full 
of delight in the companionship of old friends 
who left her on Saturday morning: " The 

K 's have gone and I have toiled through 

the day in putting my house in order. I am 
dreadfully fatigued, but could not endure a rest 
with every room in disorder however; chaos 
over Sunday is not according to Scripture; " 
and, as the wear of life made effort of any kind 

more wearisome, it was recorded; " The mo- 

271 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

notony of my life is really pleasant to me; " and, 
" haven't ' lifted up my voice ' to sound this day, 
but have had a great circulation of thoughts." 
Speech, however, from herself or others gave 
the charm to life, as, after quoting in her jour- 
nal: " The sweetest string of the great harp of 
mingled harmonies is the human voice," she 
added, " The whispering winds, the melodious 
birds, and gushing water are all that very re- 
sponsible poets have claimed; nevertheless, my 
vote goes in favor of social qualities that belong 
to the human species," and, regarding speaking 
from feeling, while Gloriana wrote: " I can't al- 
ways keep it in, I shall speak when it comes 
handy; " the daughter felt, " there is a fascina- 
tion in speaking your mind that almost recon- 
ciles one to reproof." 

With all her interest in the " human species," 
nature, in all its phases, appealed to her; the 
weather, " sparkling with sunshine;" "heard 
the notes of a robin for the first time this sea- 
son; " " the dawn of a fragrant summer morn- 
ing;" even "biddies" (chickens), with whom 
she " loved to cultivate an intimacy — like per- 
sons, they are flattered by attention and kind- 

272 



AT HOME AND ABROAD 

ness." " The trees are behind time in their 
budding interests, notwithstanding the cour- 
ageous example of the little crocuses." " What 
charming weather, and how beautiful this world 
looks to human eyes, the flowers, the foliage, 
the grass (jolly blades that drink the dew of 
heaven!)" "I rise early and go out to salute 
the green grass with a rapture little known to 
city ladies." " We went down to the shore and 
watched the swelling waves and saw how pa- 
tiently the brave old Ocean repeats itself for 
ever and ever." " There is always a cheerfulness 
in snow-storms to me, notwithstanding the labor 
and inconvenience they put me to usually. I sit 
quietly in my chamber most of the day and say, 
1 let it snow; ' and, when the snow was not 
crusty, making the effort too great, she cleared 
her own paths from preference, as " the work 
has charms for me." Her heart responded to 
the world of matter, as it did to the world of 
feeling. ' The world we live in has always ap- 
peared full of beautiful sights, and a complete 
treasure-house of loveliness and melody; " and, 

under all circumstances, she found, " Fresh air, 

273 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

and owing no one a shilling, is quite invigorat- 
ing! " 

Life held its charm. "This is a beautiful 
worjd, and I want to stay in it a long time." 
" I have comfortable ' fixings ' as to furniture, 
old-fashioned in this day and time, not costly or 
grand, but very pleasant to me. I hope I may live 
long to enjoy it." " I sit up late and read with 
great enjoyment." The periodicals of the day and 
good books of various kinds were always at hand, 
suggesting often pithy sentences written in let- 
ters or journal: " Alluding to fashions, the New 
York Herald says : ' In some styles there is no 
change.' Poor relations will be cut the same as 
last year! " " I read in a scientific work not 
long ago that human elements consist of four 
substances, representing the familiar names of 
fire, water, salt-peter, and charcoal. Of such is 
man, the Lord of the whole Earth! Iron is 
found in blood, phosphorus in the brain, lime in 
the bones, and dust and ashes in all." The Bible 
was read through yearly for many years: " the 
' law ' compels, the ' gospel ' charms." 

The ability to cast a charm over the most 

ordinary and matter-of-fact occupations was 

274 



AT HOME AND ABROAD 

marked and continual. " Made a great display 
on the clothes-line this morning. How avail- 
able I can make myself! how proud I am of my 
capacity for doing so! health and resolution can 
effect wonders. I have both at the present time, 
for which I am thankful." " My head is full of 
notions and my hands full of work; my feet run 
hither and thither a considerable part of the 
day ' world without end ' (I wish I could say 
' Amen ' and make a respectable finish of it)." 
" I daily wield the hand of the diligent, and con- 
siderable economy is thrown in, and I say to 
myself, ' Is woman's work ever done? ' When 
alone I am in the domestic harness till quite in 
the afternoon, and, if I have company, I am 
never out of it. Some spiteful ' critter ' said 
women have very few reserves, and always tell 
all they know, and wonders that it takes them so 
long. I daresay he was served as I lately served 
a biped who ' took aim ' at me. But I am not 
afraid! I can stand shot first rate — have smelt 
powder too often. I shall begin to number my 
slain before long, if only to prove my discretion 

and show my valor." 

275 



XXXIII 

NOT A "GRIM OLD MAID" 

Through all the long life the love of her 
youth remained a potent factor. Far away as 
it seemed at times, it made marriage always im- 
possible, a " desirable match " merely, having no 
attraction. Miss Mary wrote in her journal: 
" I remember a yout'hful lover who died and left 
me. No one else has ever filled the void. After 
fifty years I remember him pleasantly. If he had 
lived and I had had more experience, would he 
have been my chosen before all the world? My 
youthful days and middle life might possibly 
have been pleasanter, but I feel sure I could not 
possibly be so full of contentment as I am now 
in my single state, free from anxiety and weighty 
cares, arising from family duties in married life." 
Slurs at " old maids " she might meet with com- 
posure, but " I never rail at matrimony, and yet 

276 



NOT A "GRIM OLD MAID" 

fortunately never ridiculed old maids; the one 
I consider a wise institution, while the other 
may have just a " sprinkling- " of peculiarities 
that the eye of a noble-hearted woman might 
wince at, rather than despise, and I have come 
to the conclusion that disagreeable people will 
be disagreeable, married or single." " What a 
quiet and peaceful life is the allotment of an old 
maid, if she can only be contented with it. Why 
is so much antagonism and ill-nature manifested 
toward them generally? Young and old often 
speak of them with reproach. The love of order 
in them is ridiculed, and neatness is called one 
of their striking peculiarities. The path I have 
" trotted in " I have found very pleasant, and 
am not in the least timid in encountering preju- 
dices against maiden ladies." " By accident I 
have escaped the sorrows of widowhood, and the 
lonely years and regret of a maiden lady are not 
my experience as yet, tho' I am somewhat ex- 
posed to them." " It is not the widows that are 
exclusively sought for, even the old maids are 
sometimes ' wooed and all that,' for here is the 
writer of these pages just passing through the 

ordeal, unscathed to be sure! I have hitherto 

277 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

found the path of an old maid pleasant to walk 
in. I think I will continue the journey therein." 
Through the many years since the great heart- 
ache of her youth, there had been frequent and 
advantageous opportunities for marriage. The 
attraction of her individuality was great, to some 
the snug old house, and small but comfortable 
income added a charm! Her experience proved 
to her that " it is a woman's own fault if her 
last chance for marriage ever comes; there are 
always men of all ages wanting wives;" and she 
could write with authority on the matter! 
" Cousin 's letter suggests as a hus- 
band, he having made some overtures to that 
effect. He condescends to think I would share 
his diet, and attend to his bodily wants, and, 
perhaps, jump at the chance. I don't feel called 
upon to display much activity in the matter! " 
Another bearer of " preliminaries " made her 
friend's request, with the inducement he had 
suggested, that he had a new purple merino 
dress that had belonged to his first wife, and 
had never been worn but once — that he would 
give her if she would marry him ! Another aspir- 
ing widower also of a plain grade of life, living 

278 



NOT A "GRIM OLD MAID" 

near, made an early call, appearing at her 
kitchen-door. After entering, and uttering 
a few ordinary civilities, he arose, and, with 
some embarrassment, began walking around the 
kitchen-table, saying she seemed to be a very 
good housekeeper, and finally asked if she were 
a good cook. He was dismissed with the reply, 
" If you want to match your cooking-stove you 
had better marry a colored woman! " 

There was always a dash of amusement in mar- 
riage possibilities. " Mr. , a rich widower! 

Had I better be nimble around him, or is there 
a fatality in belonging to his household! Two 
have died out of it suddenly within a year. What 
if lie should be called away and the chance of 
being a rich widow be lost on me! It is a 
fearful thing to consider. If I take him I shall 
shut my eyes to the consequences. My con- 
science would be easier to take no advantage of 
the opportunity. Lotteries in this state are 
illegal. Marriages are said to be lotteries, 
therefore, are marriages illegal, I wonder! " 

Beginning a new volume of the journal she 
wrote: "Years ago I laughed at the idea of 

keeping a journal; perhaps it would be no lack 

279 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

of wisdom if I adhered to that resolution unto 
this day. I have very little to record but petty 
events. I had more material in early life, tho' 
I probably should have run to sentimentality. I 
don't think I knew much about myself really in 
those visionary days. I had my romance, and 
was disappointed. I am more contented with a 
dull reality, mete out self-discipline, and am dis- 
enchanted of many hopes and perplexities that 
overcame me when young. I view things in a 
truer light, and have an increase of stability, and 
more self-reliance, tho' I don't escape ' schisms ' 
and all those things pertaining to the flesh, but 
endure them with great fortitude. I am quite 
alone in the world as far as dependence and lean- 
ing on another go." 

For sentiment in others, Miss Mary had al- 
ways a keen intuition as well as a real sympa- 
thy. The true " single woman " who bears ever 
in her heart a grave, bound about by vines of re- 
membrance, whose flowers never fade and whose 
leaf withereth not, has even more sympathy 
with the love-affairs of others than the happy 
married woman who has realized her dreams; 

sympathy, however much it may be fostered by 

280 



NOT A "GRIM OLD MAID" 

kindness and interest, being the true child of 
suffering. The confidences of younger people 
were invited and acceptable, for she deemed it 
" good to keep our sympathies enlarged and ex- 
tended beyond ourselves, the secret is, being 
accessible to others." Youth always attracted 
her; " to keep the young side to the front " was 
one of her rules of life, even if she wrote, " Old 
age don't look so grim as it did awhile ago." 
The grace of life was still to be cultivated; " An 
old maid occupying her house alone is solitary 
as any single woman's house is, but need not 
be the less cheerful; " " I am a ' single woman,' 
but I am sure I am not classified as a Grim Old 
Maid; " and it was gratifying to record " Some- 
body said I was witty and plain; and that age 
had given my homely face a charm;" — on a 
birthday s'he wrote, " My years accumulate, and 
even the mirror don't frighten me." 

A birthday never passed unnoticed in the 
journal. " To-day is my birthday. I 'have spent 
it alone and pleasantly, and without sin, as far as 

committing sin goes; the omission a sin may 

find me there! Is there anybody that does not 

omit to do good? It is much not to do and think 

281 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

evil, on that I have built my structure to-day. 
One day! I have never in my thoughtlessness 
watched myself all day before. He who ' neither 
slumbers nor sleeps ' knoweth, and may He 
guard and protect me in the right way." 

The passing years, running up such a long 
record against her told but little on the mode 
of life. The interest in all younger life remained, 
and the desire to have a part in it, to keep 
" modern and extant," even though the realiza- 
tion of what could not be far off was felt. 
" Table and hearth have no occupant but myself 
— no hurry, very little work and care; my house 
is clean and still, nothing disturbed or out of 
place, and these quiet times in my own house 
suit me exactly — and Somebody's growing old! 
that tells the story; and Somebody must bestir 
themselves if Somebody means to travel; for old 
age best enjoys home comforts, and strange 
places and strange people have no charms in 
comparison. I am so thankful the seclusion is 
not gloomy to me." " Read a story, ' The Gen- 
tleman's Picnic,' to-night, and have not had such 
a spontaneous laugh in twenty years. I have 

often thought that kind of laugh had all died out 

282 



NOT A "GRIM OLD MAID" 

of me. I am glad of any youthful emotion." 
' My old home is the dearest of all places to me 
— my joys and sorrows and most of my life have 
been spent under its roof, and its sun, if not high, 
is yet warm in the sober afternoon." " I am 
over 80 years in my journey thro' life. I have 
been much alone. I don't mind being alone, as 
many persons do, and for many years there has 
been a kind of necessity for this condition. I 
am not timid, in illness I have ministrations from 
nurses, doctors, and also of servants — in com- 
fortable health I am good company to myself, 
and don't feel the loneliness that an unsocial 
companion's presence gives me." 

The solitude, however, could not continue. 
Soon after this writing, an incautious step on 
snow-covered ice caused a fall and injury that 
confined her to her bed for weeks, and from 
which she rose to move only with the aid of 
crutches. The day following the accident a 
friendly visitor found her patient, cheerful, and 
resigned, with that philosophy that marked her 
manner of meeting the changes of life. " Here 
I am flat on my back, with a weight on my leg, 

and can't stir hand or foot, and I lie here think- 

283 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

ing how much I have to be thankful for. I'm 

thankful it happened at home so that I have not 

got to be carried here; I'm thankful I am not a 

poor woman dependent upon my daily work for 

my daily bread, and that I can afford to pay for 

all the care and attention I need; I'm thankful 

to have found some one at once to come and 

take care of me, and then I'm thankful that it is 

my leg and not my neck! " When able to sit 

up, the journal was again taken up. " My 

broken leg has made me feel that I may as well 

give up and tune my pipes to lamentations. I 

don't think it unreasonable to desire the use of 

my limbs. I consider the world very beautiful, 

and life full of blessings, only some come to us 

in disguise, we are told." " God moves in a 

mysterious way, as is verified in my case, and 

made a cripple of me that I might understand 

that I am an old woman, and ought to conform 

to the usages of people of my years, and retire 

from the gay and festive scenes that hitherto I 

have enjoyed so much." At times the great 

future seemed near: " Who knows the future? 

Shall we recognize and be recognized? I have 

thought if I go to a better world I should like 

284 



NOT A "GRIM OLD MAID" 

to see Solomon; he has been purified doubtless 
without losing his wisdom. And as eternity is 
long, perhaps Adam, our dear, old ' hen-pecked ' 
father, migiit in time claim me in his effort to 
call together his extended family circle. I love 
a crowd! and think I should enjoy seeing all 
my relations; but I thank God for the memories 
of the life that is past, for the good in the life 
that now is, and for the hope of the life that is 
to come." 

A dullness of hearing marred the pleasure of 
living as these years of lameness continued, but 
there was ever the strong love of life, and that 
readjustment to altered conditions that was 
characteristic. " Life is quite a study and far 
more difficult than the lessons of a school-room. 
My infirmities are to remind me of the woes of 
life mingled with its blessings. I miss my hear- 
ing ears and seek atonement in my wonderful 
seeing eyes." Nothing more forcibly expressed 
one of the ruling principles of her life than the 
words, " We don't exactly elect our destiny, but 

we can mar it by our misconduct." 

285 



XXXIV 

THE REMINISCENT YEARS 

During the crippled years it was a severe trial 
to Miss Mary to be unable to go freely about her 
own house, and to be obliged to depend upon 
the service of others. She had always chosen 
an upper room that had been her mother's, 
where in young maidenhood the mother had 
sat at the western window embroidering. Miss 
Mary had loved the same seat and out- 
look as she wrought intricate lace-stitches or 
" sprigged " the fine white mull for gown or 
apron, thinking the while those thoughts too 
precious to utter, or weighing lighter matters. 
Her strong determination now enabled her to 
descend the staircase, and, with the aid of 
crutdhes, to walk about her garden and door- 
yards. The flowers and plants welcomed her, 

and she " saluted " them in her own fashion. 

286 



THE REMINISCENT YEARS 

The young shoots forever springing up around 
the old lilac-bushes were like the ever-young 
feelings in her own heart, and the raspberry bush 
by the butt'ry door, replacing the one from 
which her baby hands had loved to pick the lit- 
tle black thimbles, spoke to her of the long past 
years. The lily-bed at Queen Esther's was be- 
yond her reach, but with her mind's eye she 
could see it as the breeze swept the curving 
green leaves till it seemed a little lake in the 
grass. 

All the familiar stretdh of vision was so dear! 
She could still see, in thought, the whole place 
as it was in her youth, ere the end-kitchen and 
various other buildings were removed, and when 
the slaves still went in and out of the open door. 
Only one trace of them remained; the back 
door-stone was so worn by their shuffling tread 
that the hollow thus made would hold a full pail 
of water! 

Over the path of narrow stones she made her 
pilgrimage. Back and forth on them she passed, 
as, when a little girl, s'he learned to use t'he power 
now weakened and maimed. These stones were 

full of messages. She had often wondered why 

287 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

they were so narrow. Surely when they were laid 
there was land enough, and stones enough, and 
time enough! Now she had come to think of 
t'hem as leading to the narrow house where so 
many, one by one, had been borne, and toward 
which she looked with unfaltering gaze. 

Five crippled years passed. The cheerful 
spirit rarely flagged, nor did patience tarry, al- 
though privations increased. A duller hearing, 
and, finally, the loss of acute vision debarring 
her from the books that had been the chief solace 
and companions of her solitude, took from life its 
charm. Then, and not till then, did she wish 
to resign it. 

Miss Mary made every provision for the im- 
mediate necessities that would follow her death. 
During the long life there had been several 
severe illnesses, and, like her father, she had 
always faced death with peculiar calmness 
and as a matter of course. A few months 
before death came, realizing that strength was 
failing, she sent for a neighbor whom she told 
that she thought her life was near its end, and 
arranged that this neighbor, who had prepared 

her mother for burial, should perform the same 

288 



THE REMINISCENT YEARS 

office for her. For that service she had received 
a certain sum of money; for this one she was to 
be likewise compensated. Miss Mary directed 
in what garments she should be clothed, desired 
that no one should look on her face after death, 
that no flowers be put about her or on her coffin, 
and that she should be carried over the same nar- 
row stones that marked the path of her baby 
feet, and that were hallowed by the lives and 
deaths of those dear ones who had been carried 
out before her. 

A gold piece was laid in the upper drawer of 
the bureau near her bed, to be ready for the 
clergyman who should officiate at her funeral, 
as, to her mind, the distance from which he must 
come merited recognition. Provision was also 
made in her will for the perpetual care of her 
grave and of the graves of the others dear to her. 

She owed no one anything, and her mind 
was at rest about all worldly affairs. Debarred 
the comfort of reading, and with feebleness and 
suffering increasing, life was no more of 
value; the release that came ere the dawn of a 
Thanksgiving morning was longed for, and the 
glad spirit fled to its Maker, and to the joyful re- 
union with those " lost awhile." 

269 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

Faithful hands had ministered to all the needs; 
loving care had surrounded her; the dearest of 
kindred had comforted her seclusion and 
brought cheer to dark days; all that remained 
to be done was to carry out her last wishes. 

The Judge of Probate said Miss Mary's will 
was " long enough to go 'round a barn! ,: The 
making of wills had been almost a hobby with 
her. Inheriting a tract of land from her grand- 
mother, she had waited anxiously for her 
eighteenth birthday in order to make testamen- 
tary disposal of it. After the death of her father, 
she being then about forty years of age, another 
will was naturally necessary, and on inherit- 
ing her mother's estate, still another. Under 
friendly guidance she had learned to draw the 
important document herself, and this third will 
came to be a great one, bearing codicil after 
codicil, as she outlived one and another therein 
remembered. Finally, after twenty-eight had 
died among the kindred, friends, old servants, 
and various pensioners mentioned, the time for 
the last will came. It was but a year or two 
before her death, and the writing of it was a 

great excitement. Following the lines long laid 

290 



THE REMINISCENT YEARS 

down, the land that had come to her through 
the female line must go to that cousin of a 
younger generation who would so pass it on. 
Whatever came from her father must go to those 
of his line and name, and the possessions of her 
mother to her most immediate kin, or to those 
bearing the well-loved maiden name. Silver, 
furniture, jewellery, ornaments, books, pictures, 
the fine counterpanes the mother had prized, the 
lace veil embroidered by Miss Mary in her youth, 
the famous tea-set, the rare old glasses, money 
at interest, stocks, house, and lands, all were 
designated, leaving the executor's task singu- 
larly free from pitfalls. 

291 



XXXV. 

THE DEATH OF THE HOUSE 

At last the old house was empty and desolate, 
and, like its mistress, it gently lost its hold on life. 
There was no longer a hand to lift a latch, a foot 
to rest on the hearthstone, or a face to look forth 
from a lattice. The old walls that during the 
long, long years since the tool of the builder left 
them had garnered their treasures, now, like the 
fading memories of old people, were losing their 
power of bestowal. All that lay in their hidden 
record, the faces they knew and loved, the voices 
that made them glad; the joy of bride and bride- 
groom, welcomed there in their youth; the first 
cry of the newly born; the words of love, of 
counsel, of direction from parents to children; 
the lover's entreaty and the maiden's whisper; 
the husky voice of age, that having fought a 

good fight and kept the faith, surrendered the 

292 



THE DEATH OF THE HOUSE 

soul to its Maker, all these, and more, the walls 
enshrined. The children of sunnier skies and a 
far-off land, stolen, sold into bondage, had here a 
refuge 'mid brethren of their tribe born under 
the shelter of the home. And while seven strong 
sons had passed out to lift their own roof-trees 
a-near, and twice a stranger had come to lead a 
happy bride across the threshold, there had been 
sadder departures, as, one by one, loved and fa- 
miliar forms were carried out of the wide door, 
and over the path of narrow stones, to burial. 

The old heart had borne its sorrows nobly, 
and who could wonder that the echoing walls 
finally gave but a dull sound and that the tale they 
tried to tell lacked coherence! The outer walls, 
grown gray with years, might attract those who 
loved them for their signs, but at the best, the 
story could be but partly told, however keen 
the ear that listened, or the instinct that sought 
to supply the lost chords. Was it not in mercy 
that, like the sweep of the wing of the death- 
angel, came the blast that left to mortal senses 
only a stilled heart and dissolution? 

The walls of Queen Esther's little home still 

stand under the shadow of the old oak-tree and 

293 



THE SALT-BOX HOUSE 

younger maples. Every summer the white stars 
of Bethlehem group themselves in constellations 
across the stretch of meadow, and the live-for- 
ever shines above the grass, while the great lake 
of lily-leaves ripples in the breeze, and the tall 
flower-stalks, raising their flaming banners, 
stand like sentinels around its border challeng- 
ing an intruding foot. 

And year by year the greater ruin keeps its 
anniversaries. Spring after spring the warm 
sunbeams brighten it, and the first blue-bird, 
with picturesque instinct, rests on the silvery 
moss-covered ghost of a cherry-tree. Later, the 
robins nest again in the dear old places, and 
orioles flash in and out of the dark hemlock 
branches. June after June the rose-bushes that 
are fast encircling the house unveil their tender 
beauties, that bow before the breeze only to bend 
back their bright young faces with a caressing 
touch against the old gray walls, comforting 
them as the kisses of a child always comfort the 
silver-haired. Summer after summer the great 
raspberry-bush by the butt'ry door tells of the 
long-time hospitality, reaching out to the lover 

of the past its slender arms tipped with luscious 

294 



THE DEATH OF THE HOUSE 

clusters. Harvest after harvest the ripe timothy 
fills the air with its fragrance as it lies in long 
swaths before the gathering. 

And Nature is claiming her own. The great 
beams that she fostered in their slender youth 
and beauty, and endowed with power and might 
in their maturity, bend more and more toward 
her loving breast. She has called the woodbines 
to come and clasp the fallen stones with their 
shining tendrils and cover with a new life that 
old heart. The winds pause to sing fheir lulla- 
bies and dirges, the snow wreathes every ledge 
and lintel and her white hand lingers tenderly 
on the wreck. The rains beat upon it, as they do 
on the graves in the distant burying-place, and 
like them, the old house sinks more and more 
into the lap of Earth, while the moss thickens 
on the low picket-fence, and the grass crowds 
over the edges of the narrow stones that lead up 

to the faded green door. 

295 



APPENDIX 

Page 68. 

Household Goods for the Setting-out of a 
Bride, 1758. 

£ s. d. 

1 Crimson Harrateen Couch 2 12 20 

3 Looking Glasses 13 9 4 

6 Large Table-Spoons 5 2 o 

6 Tea Spoons & pair Tea-Tongs. ... 1 18 11 

12 Pewter Plates 12 9 

1 Doz. Large Ditto 16 4 

1 Doz. Large Hardmettle Ditto 160 

1 Gallon Bason 7 o 

3 Three Pint Ditto 5 2 

5 Quart Ditto 8 9 

3 Porringers 4 o 

3 Large Ditto 4 6 

1 London Quart Pott 3 3 

1 Point Can 3 o 

12 Platters 39 lbs., @ is. 7d 2 10 8 

3 Brass Kittles 8 1 o 

1 Silver Tankard 14 o o 

1 Cream Pott 2 15 o 



£ s. d. 
Old Tenor 55 I 4 ) 



55 1 4 



In Colonial Money j 550 13 4 

1 Fraim of a Couch 13 6 

297 



APPENDIX 

£ s. 

2 Chests of Draws 75 

1 Dressing Table 12 

1 Pier-Foot Round Table 12 

1 Four-Foot Ditto 8 

1 Tea Ditto 8 

1 Kitchen Ditto 210 

1 Collard (colored?) Ditto 3 10 

I Stand 2 

1 Small Table 3 

3 J Dozen Chairs 88 

4 Feather Beds & bolsters & pillows 134 
12 Pair pillibear cases (5 of them 

Holland 10 

10 Pair sheets (2 of them Holland . 8 

Hollan for curtins & counterpins. ... 30 

20 yards blanketing 20 

3 coverlids costly ones 32 

2 coverlids 12 

2 pieces calico 67 

Outside 1 quilt 7 

Outside & lining & Quilting 2 bed 

quilts 15 4 

24 yards tow-cloth for under beds.. 12 

12 yards Diaper 12 

12 yards huckabuck 12 

6 yds. tow-cloth 3 

2 Table-cloths, 9 yards @ 20s 9 

14 yards Diaper 20s. pr yard 14 

14s. 4 4 

8 yards cloth for table & towels .... 4 

chinch for curtins, 8 yards 15 4 

muslin for lining 4 10 

1 Set Cheaney Tea-Dishes 3 8 

£ Set Tea-Dishes 3 

2 Iron Potts 415 

2 Iron Kittles 3 o 

298 



APPENDIX 



£ s. 

Skillet & Bason ! 6 

1 Tea-Kittle 7 IO 

1 Chafing Dish 3 

1 Tea-Pot 2 5 

1 Toasting-iron j c 

1 Frying-Pan .' 1 ^ 

1 Warming-Pan 5 IO 

1 Box-iron & heater 2 5 

4 pattipans, 1 pepper-pot, 1 canister. 2 4 

I pair snuffers c 

1 bellows 2 

1 pair Tongs ) 

1 J*? 1 .. \ 14 10 

I Gridiron ) 

1 Tribbet (trivet) ) 

2 Pair Hand-irons j IT IO 

Case and a half of knives & forks. . . 3 

6 puter spunes jg 

Wooden ware 4 

Cooper work 714 

Glasses & Earthen ware 17 e 

2 large punch boulds 218 

3 likor glasses j IO 

14 picter fraims 916 

Pictor and fraim of ye Royal Family. 30 5 

1 Great wheel ^ 5 

1 Duch (Dutch) wheel 5 

1 Horse & Side-Saddle 100 

4 cows 24 

1 Stear 2 a 

1 Sow & Piggs c 



1,520 10 11 



Reduced to Lawful Monev 1^2 t t 

1 Negro Girl ^ * 



185 10 11 
299 



APPENDIX 

Equisetace^e (Horsetails). 
Page 135. 

" The cuticle or thin skin which covers the 
Horsetails, is in all the species regularly and beau- 
tifully decked with particles of flint, arranged in 
lines and other forms, often not the five-hundredth 
part of an inch in diameter. 

The Horsetails are found in every latitude from 
the equator to the poles, abounding in the tropical 
parts of America and Asia and at the Cape of Good 
Hope, but becoming rare as we advance toward the 
polar circles. 

Our native species were by the old writers termed 
Shave-grasses, and, as this Corn Horsetail has 
much of the roughness given by the particles of 
flint, and as it is the most frequent species, it is 
probably the plant sold in Queen Elizabeth's time 
by the ' Herbe-women of Cheapside ' under the 
names of Shave-grass and Pewter-wort, or Vitraria, 
though it would doubtless have been considered in- 
ferior to the equisetum hyemale, which Gerarde calls 
' the small and naked shave-grass, wherewith 
fletchers and combe-makers doe rub and polish 
their worke.' It was very serviceable in the kitch- 
ens of olden times, and was doubtless used for 
cleaning the wooden spoons and platters, the 
1 breen ' of our forefathers, as well as the ' gar- 
nish ' of pewter. Although in early days the tables 
of the opulent were served with silver, yet in the 
humbler households wooden articles were com- 
monly used at the daily meals until the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries, when pewter came into general 
use among the higher classes, though not until the 
eighteenth century were the articles made from it 

300 



APPENDIX 

sufficiently cheap to admit of their being seen at 
any save the rich man's table. 

Harrison referring to this in 1580, says that in 
some places " beyond the sea, a garnish of good 
flat pewter of an ordinarie making is esteemed al- 
most so pretious as the like number of vessels that 
are made of silver and in a maner no less desired 
amongst the great Estates where workmen are 
nothing so skilful in that trade as ours," and the 
prices he gives of the various articles prove their 
great costliness. 

The shave-grasses served for cleaning either kind 
of ware, and this Corn Horsetail is still used by 
the dairy-maids in Yorkshire for cleansing wooden 
milk-pails, while the larger and less frequent plant 
has long been known to our polishers of marble 
and other similar substances, and under the name 
of Dutch Rush has been imported from Holland for 
their use. 

The main stem of the frond is usually erect, two 
or three feet high, hollow, tapering towards its sum- 
mit, and marked with from fourteen to twenty 
ridges. These ridges render the stem so rough to 
the touch that they are like a file, and their crystals 
of flint display under the microscope the most 
exquisitely beautiful arrangement. They abound 
both in the inner and outer cuticle, and form a com- 
plete framework to the plant." 

— Ferns of Great Britain and their Allies. 
By Anne Pratt. 

Page 153. 

Among the Daughters of Liberty in Stratford 
were two children of a man who, although many 
of his family were fighting for freedom, remained 
a Tory, declaring that " even the frogs in the 
meadow croaked ' God save King George.' " The 

301 



APPENDIX 

elder of these daughters, having lost her thimble, 
would not buy another, as it would be an imported 
article, and Polly, the little sister, scorning an Eng- 
lish needle, learned to sew with a fine thorn. 

Page 156. 

A collection of arrow-heads, broken tomahawks, 
etc., gathered from this field, shows some arrow- 
heads made of stone not found nearer than Maine 
and Ohio, and at the Minneapolis Exhibition in 
1891 some of the arrow-heads exhibited there that 
came from the Cliff-Dwellers in New Mexico were 
of exactly the same shape and stone as some of 
those found near the Spindle-tree. 

Page 170. 

In the Virginia campaign resulting in the defeat 
of Cornwallis, the Due de Lauzun's was the first 
force to meet the corps of Tarleton, and for this 
service he was chosen to carry the news of the sur- 
render of Yorktown to France. 

The Chevalier de Hoehn was rewarded for cour- 
age at Yorktown. 

De Lauzun suffered under the guillotine in 1793. 

Count Dillon was also guillotined. 

302 



PUBLICATIONS OF 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO., 

Publishers and Booksellers, 
5 and 7 EAST SIXTEENTH ST., NEW YORK. 



NEW ENGLAND SUBJECTS. 

A PURITAN WOOING. A Tale of the Great Awakening 
in New England. 1740-1750. By Frank Samuel Child. 
i2mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.25. 

The story of a courtship which involved the play of in- 
tense, fanatic, religious feeling, and the deep forces which 
master the human heart in its experience of the tender pas- 
sion. Three types of colonial character are portrayed with 
singular charm and fidelity. The life of the period named 
"The Great Awakening" appears in all its startling changes 
and tragic situations. Large portions of the book are vivid 
pictures of real scenes, the historic setting being accurate and 
painstaking at the same time that it is highly imaginative and 
vital with the literary spirit. The book is a gateway into a 
fresh realm of New England life. 

"A very successful picture of Puritan characteristics." 
— Congregationalist. 

"A vivid description of the ' great awakening' that swept 
like a tidal wave over New England one hundred and sixty 
years ago." — N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. 

"A remarkable book; an excellent and powerful story." 
~-New York Press. 



BAKER & TA YLOR CO.'S PUBLIC A TIONS. 



NEW ENGLAND SUBJECTS. 

A COLONIAL WITCH. A study of the Black Art in the 
Colony of Connecticut. By Frank Samuel Child. i2mo, 
cloth, gilt top, $1.25. 

" A psychological romance after the style of Hawthorne. 
In the pathetic and picturesque figure of the witch Anne Hardy 
the author has achieved a deft and subtle piece of characteri- 
zation." — The Critic. 

"A vivid picture of the times and an entertaining and in- 
structive story." — New York Herald. 



A COLONIAL PARSON OF NEW ENGLAND. By 

Frank Samuel Child. i2mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.25. 

An interesting, humorous and sympathetic study of one 
of the most entertaining figures in the life and history of New 
England. 

" A series of captivating sketches ... a charming 
contribution to our picture gallery of the days of our fathers." 
— The Literary World. 

"An instructive and racy book." — N. Y. Observer. 

" A sympathetic and careful picture of an attractive old 
figure in the earlier history of America." — N, Y. Tribune. 



BAKER & TAYLOR CO.' S PUBLICATIONS, 



NEW ENGLAND SUBJECTS, 

JEFFERSON WILDRIDER. By Elizabeth Glover. 
Cloth, decorated, $1.25. 

"The author is to be congratulated upon having written 
a wholesome and always interesting story of New England 
life."— Literary World. 

" Marked by smoothness and reserve, and the book is alto- 
gether interesting and wholesome." — Boston Transcript. 

"It is a pleasure to praise such a story. It ought to give 
many people pleasure and the author ought to write others." 
— The Criterion. 

"An interesting tale of New England life and a subtle 
study of character and heredity." — N. Y. Commercial Adver- 
tiser. 

"A strong picture of common life, with unusual charac- 
teristics deftly used." — Evangelist. 



MANSFIELD RECORDS. Births, Baptisms, Marriages, 
and Deaths, from the Records of the Town and Churches 
in Mansfield, Connecticut. 1703-1850. Copied from the 
records by Susan W. Dimock. 8vo, cloth, net $5.00. 

Patriotic societies and those interested in genealogy will 
find this book an invaluable aid. The original records are fast 
becoming illegible and in many cases half destroyed. 



BAKER 6- TAYLOR CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
Good History and a Good Story. 

THE REGICIDES. 

A Tale of Early Colonial Times. 

By FREDERICK HULL COGSWELL. i2mo, cloth, 
gilt top, illustrated, $1.50. 
An absorbing story of Puritan New England, dealing 
largely with actual historical characters and events, the 
action centering in the flight and pursuit of Generals 
Whalley and Goffe, signers of the death-warrant of Charles 
the First. This romantic episode is here treated for the 
first time in fiction. 

"A powerful picture of Connecticut in the early colonial 
days. " — Philadelphia Times. 

" One of the most important historical tales yet written." 
— Cleveland Leader. 

" Bound to take a high and permanent place in American 
literature." — Worcester Spy. 

"A splendid picture of the life and customs of colonial 
days." — Springfield Union. 

" A vivid picture of that early past to which the incidents 
of the story belong." — Boston Transcript. 

" A strong and veracious picture of colonial life. Mr. 
Cogswell has made a book of genuine historical value, 
and of excellent qualities as a work of fiction. The inci- 
dental sketch of New-Amsterdam is full of humor, and 
genial humor is not lacking elsewhere in the story. The 
pathos is strong but never forced." — New York Times. 

" Less sombre than Hawthorne, the author betrays an 
equal sympathy with and comprehension of the Puritan 
character. The whole panorama of colonial life is sketched 
in vivid colors. The narrative is simple and direct, and is 
set forth in a style admirable for its clearness and vigor. 
The book is a contribution to that American literature of 
which so much has been written and said, and of which few 
persons have seen any evidence." — New Orleans Picayune. 

Sent, postpaid, on receipt of the price, by 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO., Publishers, 

5 and 7 East Sixteenth St., New York. 



AUG 3 1»00 



